STEVENSON— INTERRELATIONS OF FOSSIL FUELS. 407 



and shales, contains remains of reed-like plants with fragments of 

 silicified wood in the sandstones and shales ; black shale with highly- 

 carbonaceous bands was seen at one locality, but no coal was dis- 

 covered anywhere. The Middle or marine Bowen, composed of 

 yellow to gray sandstone, with blue to yellow-gray shales and some 

 ferruginous bands, is remarkably rich in moUusks, some of which 

 belong to Permian types. Vertical rootlets in shales and sand- 

 stones are taken by Jack to indicate occasional recurrence of land 

 surfaces. Silicified trunks of trees, prostrate, were seen in sand- 

 stone at several localities. Only two coal seams were recognized ,*; 

 the Kennedy, of merely local importance, is about 2 feet thick,, 

 double or triple, and rests on a floor containing vertical rootlets ; the 

 Garrick, higher in the formation, and 4 feet 9 inches thick, shows 

 near the bottom a light lustrous coal in nodules of 3 to 4 inches 

 diameter. The coal in the main portion of the seam yields a bright, 

 hard coke but coke from the nodules is spongy. The floor is soft 

 sandstone and contains rootlets; the prevailing plants are Sphenop- 

 teris and Glossopteris. The Upper Bowen, including many sheets 

 and dikes of diorite, consists of gray shales and greenish-gray sand- 

 stones with some conglomerate. The Daintree coal seam, near base 

 of the formation, is exposed in the bed of Bowen River, where it is 

 less than 10 feet below a mass of diorite. The section is (i) Burnt 

 coal, partly columnar, contains Glossopteris, 3 feet 7 inches; (2) 

 black shale, i inch; (3) burnt coal, 3 inches; (4) stony burnt coal 

 with silky plant debris, 6 inches; (5) light, porous, crumbling coal,, 

 with concretionary nodules of better coal, 8 inches ; (6) blue-black 

 shale, 2 feet 3 inches; (7) light brownish-black, laminated coal, with 

 laminae of oil-shale, 7 feet; (8) blue-black shale, 2 feet 3 inches; 

 (9) good coal, 3 inches; total, 17 feet 5 inches. The influence of 

 the diorite sheet disappears at about 15 feet. The McArthur seam, 

 higher in the section, is in 5 benches with a total thickness of 12 

 feet 3 inches, but the coal is only 5 feet and has 32 per cent, of ash. 

 The sandstones above this coal contain large stems of drifted conif- 

 erous trees, which are silicified and, at times, retain some of their 

 roots. A third seam, unimportant, is near the top of the formation 

 and only a few feet below red sandstone with a marine fauna. 



The Bowen coals are inferior; thof if the Aliddle have from 11 



