of the Coast of Newcastle m Australia. 93 



square and variously shaped sections. Large stems of arun- 

 dinaceous plants in ironstone appear in great abundance be- 

 tween the horizontal beds of coal and the other strata, and 

 impressions of fern-leaves, and of arundinaceous plants, of a 

 size inferior to those in the ironstone, are found in different 

 parts of the cliffs in six several formations; viz. in shale, iron- 

 stone, grit-stone, fuller's earth, grayish clay-stone, and in a 

 fine red indurated clay-stone of a conchoidal fracture. 



TTie Appearance of the Cliffs from the Telegraph Hill near the 

 Entrance of the Harbour of Newcastle, for about Six Miles 

 on the South-east Coast. 



a The Liglithouse on the Telegraph Hill, near the entrance to the Har- 

 bour of Newcastle. 



b The Cliff as it appeared when burning, on its discovery in the early part 

 of 1830. 



c The locality of the Cliff, which has been recently (August) discovered to 

 have been on fire at no distant period. 



d The locality of a third extinct fire, discovered September 15, 1831. 



The summit of the hill at the point [a) on which the tele- 

 graph stands, near the entrance of the harbour of Newcastle, 

 at about a foot beneath the surface on the face of the cliffj is 

 covered with the trunks of petrified trees lying in a horizontal 

 position, of a beautifully white texture, and finely grained, 

 traversed with thin veins of white and bluish chalcedony, 

 ■which is in some cases mammillated, the bark of these trunks 

 being most correctly preserved. In some places on this coast 

 the 'jchite external coat of the bark is retained, while the body 

 of the wood itself is converted into ironstone. 



At no great distance from the point (c) towards (</) beneath 

 a stratun) of breccia, varying from 8 to 50 feet in thickness, a 

 bed of hroissn coal reposes, which passes into black, having 

 immediately above it an accumulation of arundinaceous plants 

 mixed with petrified wood ; and above the latter formation a 

 layer, 6 inches in thickness, oi fuller's earth, of a greenish 

 white, which lies directly under a bed of the same mineral, of 

 a grayish and cloudy colour, containing numerous impressions 

 of fern-leaves, and having a considerable thickness. The layers 

 of fuller's earth are upwards of 100 feet in length, and are 

 situated near the summit of the cliffs about .'300 feet above the 



