1014 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION H. 
The seams of this coal-field crop out on the ranges facing the 
Pacific Ocean and are thus exposed from Jamberoo to Coal-cliff, 
where they disappear beneath the ocean level. Seven miles further 
north, the “ Bulli” seam is found at a depth of 641 feet below 
sea-level, and extensively worked by the Metropolitan Coal Com- 
pany from a shaft 1,098 feet deep. At Mount Westmacott, 34 
miles to the north, and at Holt-Sutherland, 163 miles from Sydney, 
this seam is found at depths of 1,518 and 2,231 feet respectively. 
Recent boring operations at Cremorne, on the northern shores 
of Sydney Harbour, proved this seam at a depth of 2,900 feet, 
the core in the first bore showing a 9-feet seam of wholly burnt 
or cindered coal, and in the second bore an apparently clean and 
unburnt coal. Tempted by the geographical position, a company 
is, on the strength of these two bores, sinking two large shafts, 
24 miles west of the bores with the object of working coal under 
the waters of Sydney Harbour. 
The “Top” or “ Bull” seam is practically the only one of this 
field hitherto worked, the remaining six or seven underlying 
eams being either commercially useless, or at best distinetly 
inferior. Mount Kembla Colliery marks the southern limits at 
which this seam is of commercial value. Found there as thin as 
2 feet 9 inches, it rapidly thickens to the north, and throughout 
the greater portion of that property it exists 5, 6, and 7 wer 
thick ; northward to Bulli it exists 6, 7, and 8 feet thick; a 
North Bulli it thins to 4 feet, and again gradually ae 
northward till at Helensburgh it attains a thickness of 10 feet. 
This seam is sem1- fearon and unrivalled in the Colm as 
a steam-coal. It contains 66 per cent. of fixed carbon, 22 - 
cent. of volatile hydro-carbons, and 9 per cent. of fixed ash ; it 
yields an excellent hard-bodied coke, now largely used in metallur- 
gical works in Australasia. 
THE WESTERN COAL-FIELD. 
This field is readily correlated with the Southern field. Its coal 
and kerosene shale-beds arefound in the elevated plateau of the Blue 
Mountains, their continuity with the Southern (or Eastern) coals 
having been abr uptly broken by a large dislocation in the strata, 
caused by a sinking of the land to the east of these mountains. 
The coal is cheaply won andcheaplysold. Although containing more 
ash than the Newcastle or even the Southern coal, and distinctly 
less valuable than the latter for steam-raising, it gives fair results, 
and has of late been largely patronised by the Government railways. 
It is in isolated and circumscribed areas of this field that the 
famous ‘“‘ Kerosene” or “ Boghead” shale occurs, its finer quality 
being exported for gas- enriching. The second quality, hitherto 
used for oil: making, is now, on account of the free importation of 
American oils, thrown aside or left unworked. 
