62 Report S.A.A. Advancement of Science. 



outcrop of the thick seam is 300 feet above sea level. If we take 

 the shale exposed to the north of the Somkeli outcrop and reached 

 by boreholes below the seam to be the Ecca shales, as is probable, 

 the lowest seam must be approximately 275 feet, measured at right 

 angles to the dip of the strata, from the iDase of the coal measures. 



At Ntambanana, a seam, in some places as much as 7 feet thick, 

 but seen to thin elsewhere, is opened by adits. Its relation to other 

 seams is not clear. No other outcrops are exposed, and boreholes 

 put down in flat country in the direction of the dip, which is slight, 

 have shown thin seams only. Ecca shales and Dwvka outcrop 

 inland, a few miles from Ntambanana, on the Melmoth road, but 

 it is difficult to estimate the perpendicular distance between the thick 

 coal seam and the base of the coal measures. It is, however, 

 considerable. 



The Umlalazi Coalfield, which is on the southern side of the 

 granite belt forming the Ungoye Range of mountains, is very different 

 from the other coalfields in the Colony. The seams are very 

 numerous. As the ground is much broken and tilted, and the seams 

 variable in section, correlation is difficult. I can make no attempt 

 to place the numerous outcrops on the northern side of what is 

 known as the Ibade Stream, but from two borehole sections on the 

 southern side of the Ibade, I have compiled a section showing 

 numerous seams varying from an inch or two up to 8 feet in thick- 

 ness. The lowest seam shown, is, probably, judging from a borehole 

 behind the outcrop which has passed into the shales, about 900 feet 

 from the Ecca shales. 



The character of the coal in the Stormberg seam has already 

 been referred to. 



ANALYSES OF NATAL COAL. 



(i) Stormberg Seam. 



For the Ecca seams we may generalise by saying that apart 

 from local variations the seams are most bituminous near Newcastle. 



My remarks are based almost entirely on analyses published 

 either with the report of the Government Coal Testing Committee, 



