STEVENSON— INTERRELATIONS OF FOSSIL FUELS. 411 



notes his discovery of Glossoptcris leaves in closely matted layers 

 within a soft fireclay. They were undecomposed, were not brittle 

 or carbonized, but retained the original substance. Soaked in 

 glycerine and water, they could be unrolled and laid out flat. A 

 large number of the specimens were mounted and placed on exhi- 

 bition in the Museum of the Department of Mines. 



More than forty years ago, Wilkinson stated that " on the coast, 

 near the Nobby, Newcastle, may be seen several trunks of trees up 

 to one foot thick, with roots attached, starting from a seam of coal 

 and embedded in the strata in the upright position in which they 

 grew." In the interval since Wilkinson studied the region, detailed 

 examinations have been made and the conditions have been pre- 

 sented by David^ in his remarkable memoir on the Hunter River. 

 It will sufifice here to cite only the description of features observed 

 in the Newcastle or highest Series. That contains 12 seams, which 

 are workable in more or less extensive areas and occur in two divi- 

 sions, separated by a thick deposit containing much diagonally- 

 bedded conglomerate, in great lenses. The color of this mass is 

 greenish- to reddish-brown. 



The Wallarat or Bulli seam, at top of the Permo-Carboniferous, 

 directly underlies the Trias and is much eroded ; its underclay is a 

 root-bed. The Great Northern seam, 14 feet thick and 120 feet 

 lower, underlies conglomerate and is much eroded at the junction. 

 The conglomerate, at base, holds flattened stems of trees. At the 

 cliffs of Catherine Hill Bay, the top of this seam has numerous 

 stumps of large trees and the underclay has vertical Vertehraria, 

 separated by intervals of about 2 feet Below the floor of this coal 

 seam is the Fennel Bay fossil forest, which is persistent in the New- 

 castle Series at 20 to 80 and 100 feet below the Great Northern. 

 These plants are in situ. At somewhat more than 200 feet below 

 the Great Northern the lower Pilot seam is reached, 5 feet thick and 

 33 feet below the upper Pilot, the interval being filled with tufa- 

 ceous beds. The top portion of the lower seam, splint coal, has 

 great numbers of vertical trunks and stumps, rooted in the coal, in 

 some cases 30 feet high, reaching to the floor of the upper bed. 



3 T. W. E. David, " Geology' of the Hunter River Coal Measures," pp. 

 3-41, 330-332. 



