Geological Society. 513 



kind of iron ore may have hitherto been overlooked in other coal- 

 fields, the attention of all coal-owners cannot too soon be directed 

 to the discovery of the "Black Band" upon their own property*. 



COAL IN SICILY, NEW ZEALAND, NEW HOLLAND, BORNEO, SOUTH 

 AMERICA, AND KERGUELEn's LAND. 



At a time when steam navigation is assuming a character of in- 

 calculable importance to the world, the discovery of coal in any 

 maritime position in distant regions that lie upon the great commer- 

 cial highway of nations, demands the attention of all whose duty or 

 interest it is to facilitate the means of rapid intercourse between the 

 most distant extremities of the habitable globe. 



Respecting Sicily, we have been informed by Dr. Calvert that he 

 has himself seen a bed of good tertiary coal three feet thick, close 

 to Messina, in a Fiumera to the left of Fort Gonzago, from which 

 thirty years ago the English commander and himself laid in a stock 

 for their winter fires, and which was used by our dragoons for their 

 forge ; although this is probably of tertiary formation, it may, like 

 that of Cadebona, afford useful fuel. 



From New Zealand I have seen a specimen of coal very like that 

 of Staffordshire, found on the north shore of the southern island, 

 near Cape Farewell, by the crew of a boat accidentally landing at 

 the base of a cliff, in which the first thing noticed was a bed of coal 

 three feet in thickness projecting over their heads. This coal in all 

 probability will not only have material influence on the future de- 

 stiny of the neighbourhood in which such a valuable repository of 

 fuel has been found, but will also facilitate the intercourse by steam 

 between this rising colony and our flourishing establishments in Van 

 Diemen's Land and Australia. 



In New Holland, in ISiO, the Australian Company sold about 

 27,000 tons of coal at Newcastle on the river Hunter, with a rapidly 

 increasing demand. And we learn from the Port Phillip Gazette, 

 Oct. 28, 1840, that at Western Port, near Port Phillip, an exploring 

 party has discovered coal of excellent quality, but at some distance 

 from water-carriage. 



* Mr. Hawkshaw's observation as to the manner in which flaslies of bi- 

 tuminous mud, from putrescent lagoons, overflow the country adjacent to 

 them, in the tropical regions of Venezuela, on the arrival of rains after a 

 season of drought, may illustrate the cause of the presence of the large 

 quantity of inflammable matter which occurs in the rich iron ore of the 

 so-called Black Band. 



A similar discharge of bituminous mud from lagoons over the surface of 

 certain beds of growing vegetables in the time of the coal formation, may 

 have been the cause of converting the beds thus overflowed and impregnated 

 with bitumen into Kannel or Candle coal ; and an argument in favour of 

 this hypothesis is supplied by the fact of the microscopic structure of the 

 plants in Candle coal being more distinctly and universally preserved 

 throughout the entire mass, than in ordinary coal. Similar bituminous 

 irruptions may have caused the sudden death and perfect preservation of 

 the fossil fishes that swarm in certain beds of highly bituminous shale of 

 the coal formation, as also in the copper slate of the Hartz, and other bitu- 

 minous shales. 



Phil. Mag. S. 3. Vol. 20. No. 133. June 1 842. *2 M 



