STEVENSON— INTERRELATIONS OF FOSSIL FUELS. 509 



feet, 56 feet of coal in four seams, 3, 11, 17 and 25 feet. Coal from 

 the 17-feet seam was tested by steamers on the Rio Grande with 

 good results, though the ash is high. The coal is caking and yields 

 from 6,700 to 8,198 cubic feet of gas with 5 to 5.8 candle-power. 



Almost two score years later, White^^^ examined the coal areas 

 of Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catharina, Parana and Sao Paulo, the 

 southern state of Brazil. His conclusions did not justify hopes 

 based on reports by earlier observers. The deposits were laid down' 

 on an irregular surface of granite, which, at times, is within a few 

 feet of the lowest coal, at others, separated from it by a considerable 

 thickness of rock. The succession, near Minas in Santa Catharina, 

 is : Santa Catharina System, composed of Sao Bento Series, 900 

 m.eters ; Passa Dois Series, 228 meters ; Tubarao Series, 280 meters. 

 The Sao Bento Series, red sandstone and shales, is capped by a 

 great thickness of eruptive rocks and is assigned to the Triassic. 

 The Passa Dois Series, shales with thin limestone at top, is without 

 coal and is referred by D. White to the Damuda series of India. 

 The Rio Bonito sandstones and shales of the Tubarao Series, con- 

 taining the coals, are 158 meters thick near Minas and have 5 coals; 

 at one place in Sao Paulo, 170 meters and no coal; at one in Parana, 

 270 meters and no coal ; at one in Rio Grande do Sul, the group is 

 but 57 meters with one thick and four thin coals ; while at 18 kilo- 

 m.eters farther south it is 145 meters with one thick and 13 thin 

 coals. In the greater part of the region, the Rio Bonito consists 

 chiefly of yellowish to grayish white feldspathic sandstones, which 

 are poorly consolidated ; in much of Rio Grande do Sul, however, 

 shale predominates. 



The coals were seen first in Santa Catharina, where, near Minas, 

 5 seams were examined, Treviso, Barro Branco, Irapua, Ponte Alta 

 and at bottom, Bonito ; but at 60 miles northward, only one seam, 

 probably Barro Branco, was seen. In the northern states, Parana 

 and Sao Paulo, the distribution of coal is indefinite ; at best the 

 seams are very thin and they are wanting in many districts. Even 

 in Santa Catharina and Rio Grande do Sul, the seams are so irregu- 

 lar that they may be regarded as local, the only really persistent 



^1^ I. C. White, Commisao de Estudos de Carvao de Pedra do Brazil, 

 Relatorio Final," Rio Janeiro, 1908, pp. 1-300. 



