COAL 859 



of a very laminated structure, -with indications of pyrites scarcely visible ; but it is 

 not unlikely that seams yet undiscovered may elicit a coal of a still better quality. 



' The second sample of Brazilian coal exhibited in Paris was scarcely equal in quality 

 to the former, and seemingly was more slaty and more charged with pyrites. This 

 was brought from a mine in the province of Rio Grande do Sul, which has boon 

 scantily worked for several years, but hitherto with little encouragement. It is situa- 

 ted on the Arroyo dos Bates, a small stream that runs into the Rio Jacuahy, about 

 half a league distant from Sao Jeronymo, which is near 16 leagues to the westward of 

 Porto Alegre, the capital of the province, and which has an excellent water conveyance 

 between it and the seaport town of Rio Grande ; but with all the advantages of easy 

 transport, the coal has not been able to obtain a good reputation among the owners of 

 the numerous steam vessels that are constantly plying between the places above 

 mentioned, for which traffic English coal, notwithstanding its high price, is also pre- 

 ferred. 



' There is another extensive deposit of coal in the same province, and which is said 

 to be a coal of very good quality ; but its distance, too far inland, and the want of 

 water conveyance, are said to be great obstacles against the probable success of any 

 attempt to work it in the present state of the country. Mr. N. Plant thus describes 

 them : 



' The only localities on the eastern coast of South America, between the river 

 Amazon and the river Plate, where the existence of coal has actually been determined 

 ;iro the two southern Brazilian provinces of Sao Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul and Santa 

 Catherina, and the neighbouring Republic of Banda Oriental, or Uruguay. 



Lignite, brown coal, and bituminous schists, to which the name of "carvao de 

 pedra," stone coal, has been applied in Brazil occur in thin beds along the coast and 

 in the interior ; but it is only in the two extreme southern provinces and the adjoining 

 Republic of Uruguay that beds of bituminous coal containing palaeozoic fossils have yet 

 been discovered. Nor should I think it likely from the observations I have made 

 during many years in nearly every province of the Brazilian Empire and the Republics 

 of the River Plate, that coal of so early an age as even the lower oolitic rocks will ever 

 be found in Brazil north o"f the province of Sta. Catherina, unless it be in the adjoin- 

 ing one of Parana. 



' In the province of Sao Pedro do Rio Grande do Sul, three distinct coal-basins have 

 been discovered, and the extent and thickness of the beds of coal to some degree 

 determined. The district in which these coal-deposits are found is contained within 

 the limits of latitude 30 and 32 and long. 51 and 54. The basins are separated 

 from each other by rolling hills of granite, syenite, and mica schist. 



' The largest of these coal-basins is perhaps that occupying the valleys of the rivers 

 Jaguarao and Candiota, between lat. 31 and 32 and longitude 53 and 54, called 

 the Candiota coal-field. A detailed report of this appeared in the " Reports from Her 

 Majesty's Secretary of Embassy and Legation respecting Coal. 1867." Along aline 

 ranging from N.E. to S.W. the upper coal-beds of this deposit can be seen at intervals 

 for about 50 miles, where the superincumbent sandstone has been denuded, or the 

 strata worn through by streamlets, and the same may be observed from N.W. to S.E. 

 for about 30 miles. 



' The falling away of one side of a hill some years ago on the banks of the River 

 Candiote, near the basset-edge of the basin, laid bare five beds of coal, varying in 

 thickness from 9 feet to 25 feet, giving 65 feet as the total thickness of coal exposed. 

 The coal from the lower beds, which are also the thickest, is highly bituminous ; but 

 that from the tipper is shaly and poor. 



' The second basin lies in the valley of the Sta. Sep5, one of the tributaries of the 

 River Jacuahy, in about lat. 30 20' and long. 53 30'. Two beds appear here, one of 

 7 feet and the other of 14 feet, which have been traced over an area of some 15 miles, 

 and along the margins of other neighbouring streams. The coal in this deposit under- 

 lies sandstone, like that of Candiote. 



' The third basin is near Sao Jeronymo, a town on the banks of the River Jacuahy, 

 in about lat. 30 and long. 51 30'. This is the only coal-field being worked at the 

 present moment on the eastern side of the Andes, on the South American continent. 

 Although the beds of coal in this deposit are of less thickness than those of Candiota 

 and Sta. Sepe, the nearness of the basin to the port of embarkation at the town of Sao 

 Jeronymo, which is only eight miles distant from the coal, renders the cost of land 

 carriage very trifling, compared to what it would be from the other two fields, to a 

 navigable river. 



' Two shafts have been sunk in this basin to a bod of coal 6 feet thick, and a horse- 

 way made into it, along which the coal is drawn to the surface. Borings have been 

 made in different parts, by which it has been ascertained that the whole basin spreads 

 over an area of about 20 miles, and that other beds of coal exist under the 6-feet seam. 



