129 



observer the appearance of having flowed from the rock. 

 Moreover, the nature and origin of the surface rock preclude 

 the probability of its having been contained in it. So also do 

 those of the subjacent mica-schist, into which the boring was 

 made at the spot previously indicated. Indeed, all the circum- 

 stances conspire to prove, that the substance is a waif upon 

 these shores. Corroborative evidence is afforded by the finding 

 of the same substance at Coffin Bay, Eyre Peninsula, o^esin at 

 Powler Bay, leeswax at the head of the Gi-reat Australian Bight 

 and gutta-percha at Eucla. Doubtlessly all have formed part of 

 the cargo of some wrecked vessel. Mr. G. Dixon informs me 

 that he found in 1867 a mineral pitch in the whole littoral 

 tract between Cape Arid and Doubtful Island Bay, West 

 Australia. Moreover, the substance, locally known as da^nmar^ 

 belongs to at least three different chemical bodies. The com- 

 monest kind is black, breaking with a lustrous conchoidal frac- 

 ture ; melts easily and burns with a bright flame, evolving an 

 asphaltic odour. On distillation it yields dark-coloured hydro- 

 carbon oils and parafin, leaving a copious residue of carbon, 

 without ash ; it is insoluble in nitric acid, alcohol and turpen- 

 tine, but is partly soluble in benzole. It resembles in appear- 

 ance and properties a refined asphalt, but is more lustrous- 

 than that obtained at Trinidad with which it has been critically 

 compared. 



Another material similar in most respects, softens under 

 the fingers and is soluble in oil of turpentine and nitric acid. 

 A third matter, picked up between Hog Bay and Table Cape, 

 is resinous-brown with dark stripes and externally yellow, 

 brittle ; burning with a bright flame and giving off an aromatie 

 odour; on distillation it yields a little parafin and oils, without 

 residue. It is insoluble in alcohol and nitric acid, but readily 

 soluble in bisulphide of carbon. 



Coal. — In 1879 a reported discovery of good coal at Hog. 

 Bay raised the hopes of the Adelaide public, that the opinion 

 touching the absence of coal within this colony was not to be 

 prophetic. I visited the locality, and certainly found frag- 

 ments of a steam coal in the soil of a barley-field ; but the 

 presence of mica slate around the basin of drift deposit was- 

 sufficient to satisfy the geologist, that the coal was not derived 

 from the immediate neighbourhood. Finally I traced it to a 

 discarded smithy, the rubbish of which had got mingled with 

 the manure heap, and so carted to the field and worked into 

 the soil. Mr. Tolmer's "firm belief that coal will eventually 

 be found by boring in the flats and about Hog Bay River"" 

 (loc. cit. I., p. 321) must fail to find endorsement at the hands- 

 of the veriest tyro in geology. 



