168 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [fEB. 15, 



awaj'. And so through succeeding days the results were the 

 same. I went from point to point always finding the pul- 

 verulent coal exposed at broken ridges on the surface, the clay 

 like shales sloping towards the west, the coal shoved up against 

 the succeeding ridge dipping a little to the east, but in a num- 

 ber of cases the seams were almost vertical. 



At some places the coal deposits were four to six feet thick 

 and broadened as they went down. There was apparently no 

 lack of coal such as it was, but the quality was a disappointment. 

 At one place where the ground was more broken I found two 

 seams nearly parallel and about two hundred feet apart with 

 a narrow ridge between. The lower or western seam had a firmer 

 shale over it, and the coal was of a fine even texture that looked 

 encouraging. It burned freely, leaving a soft white ash and 

 suggested deposits of cannel coal, but it was so much decom- 

 posed that nowhere could a solid piece be found. The frac- 

 ture was conchoidal, often to such an extent that the decomposed 

 material would scale off the firmer pieces till an almost spherical 

 specimen was obtained which could be reduced down with the 

 fingers till nothing was left. I sunk a shaft on this deposit for 

 about 15 feet and then struck water and still softer material, 

 after which I gave it up. 



One of the enthusiastic reports on these deposits stated that 

 under a precipice on the Cerrajon river the finest out-cropping 

 of coal was to be found, but that specimens could not be ob- 

 tained because no workmen could be induced to use the pick 

 against the soft overhanging shales and lightly cemented sand. 

 I found the place just as reported but could form no definite 

 opinion as to the coal, and the men positively refused to work 

 there. 



I had been looking with much interest at the Cerrajon moun- 

 tain, noting its precipitous front standing boldly against the val- 

 ley. The foothills, near the ledge where the men refused to 

 work, were of well-defined red shales, and I began to think that 

 if coal deposits had been formed at this point at a period before 

 the upheaval of those mountains, out-croppings would certainly 

 be found among them, but if the coal was formed subsequently 

 to the uplift, then the formations in the valley would not be 

 found among the mountains, and if deposits were found among 

 the foothills it would indicate secondary upheavals, and, in 

 either case, it would be strongly presumptive that the valleys and 

 their various stages of development were of Tertiarj^ origin and 

 that the coal could be classed among the lignites. 



That there had been some disturbance in the valley was shown 

 by the uplifting and breaking through of the clay shales along 



