308 COALFIELDS AND COLLIERIES OF AUSTRALIA. 



The seam being worked is the borehole seam, which here 

 is about five feet thick. This is the furthest south mine to 

 work the borehole seam extensively, as it gets thinner to the 

 south; and as the two bands in it continue, this makes the 

 seam relatively dirtier; besides, the coal itself is not so clean. 

 The whole of the seam is extracted with the exception of four 

 inches of dirty coal on the roof. There are very distinct main 

 cleats, or, as they are locally called, "jerry faces," cutting 

 through the coal, and at times even continuing through the 

 roof and floor, and occasionally a slight dislocation will be 

 found at a "jerry face." Minor cleats crossing the main cleats 

 are known as "grey backs." 



The pits are located near the southern boundary of the pro- 

 perty, so that operations can be carried out to the rise. The 

 workings are laid out very regularly. The main intake goes 

 towards the ocean with a return airway on either side of it. 

 The mine is planned on the panel system; each district is 

 23 J chains wide, and has a pillar of 16 yards between them. 

 Headings are driven parallel with the main cleavage. Cross- 

 cuts are driven across the cleavage at an angle, while the 

 bords are driven on the face of the cleavage. The bords are 

 6 yards wide, the pillars between them being 16 yards wide. 

 The bords are connected by headings every 40 yards, thus 

 making each pillar 40 yards by 16 yards. The pillars are 

 extracted in steps 10 yards behind each other, the most for- 

 ward one worked being in-by : the coal is worked in 8 yard 

 lifts. The pillars follow up about two headings behind the 

 working in the whole. 



The Ingersoll pick or punch machine is used in a portion 

 of this mine, and eventually the coal will be worked entirely 

 by machines. The size of the machine used is "F4." The 

 undercut is 12 to 15 inches high in front, and tapers towards 

 the back, which is 4ft. in. By making a wedge-shaped hol- 

 ing the coal when blasted down falls forward as with ordinary 

 pick holing, and is much less trouble to fill than if the cut was 

 even all the way through, when the coal would tend to drop 

 down in a body. This machine is considered to be more suited 

 for this particular seam, as it can work round nodules of 

 brasses. The machine runner can tell by the way the coal 

 cuts, when he reaches a main cleat, but he keeps on for his 

 full four feet deep, and trusts to the shots to break down the 

 coal to the best advantage. Should the coal break off from 

 a cleat before reaching the end of the undercut, possibly the 

 remaining coal may be so loosened that it can be brought down 

 by a few blows of a pick; if too solid, then the undercut 

 is so much towards the next round. One machine will work 

 five places from 6 to 7 yards wide in an eight hours' shift. As 



