127 



exceptions to the marine character of our Miocene are those 

 beds classified as Upland Miocene (op. cit. p. Iviii.)- Ii^ these 

 remains of land plants have been found, and no marine fossils 

 are known to occur, and from the nature of the sediment there 

 cannot be much doubt that they are of lacustrine or fluviatile 

 origin. It does not necessarily follow that coal-beds have been 

 accumulated among them, though there is a bare chance that a 

 deposit similar to that at Lal-Lal may be discovered in some 

 of the unexplored deeper basins. How^ever, the superficial 

 area of these rocks is for the most part too limited to admit of 

 a coal deposit sufficiently extensive to meet the requirements 

 of a commercial enterprise — to say nothing of the uncertainty 

 in respect to quality. 



The much greater thickness of and the much greater super- 

 ficial area occupied by the Pliocene strata as compared with the 

 Upland Miocene offer us prospects for the discovery of coal 

 not so cheerless, but nevertheless somewhat delusive, in spite 

 of the indications previously alluded to under petroleum. 



Various reputed discoveries and indications of coal have 

 been announced in the last few years, and some within the 

 past few months. A short review of the circumstances of 

 gome of them may not be without value, as serving to illustrate 

 the fallacious deductions drawn from observed facts, and the 

 immense amount of ignorance that exists as to the nature and 

 mode of occurrence of coal. First, with regard to the alleged 

 discoveries. These, with one or two exceptions, are of true 

 coal, but not in sittCr, as may be proved by a geological exami- 

 nation of the surrounding country, even where it may not be 

 possible to get at the true facts as to how it had come there — • 

 whether by accident or design. Of this class belong the dis- 

 coveries at Beef acres (near Adelaide), Yankalilla (probably), 

 Hog Bay, Kangaroo Island, Middleton, and Hindmarsh Island. 

 An occurrence of carbonaceous material in sific is the " coal " 

 of Coffin's Bay, but it is nothing more than partially decom- 

 posed seaweed compressed by a weight of blown sand. The 

 ''discovery" in the Forest Eeserve at "NVoolundunga, the 

 nature of which the members of the Forest Board arc not 

 agi'eed upon, is, in my opinion, a true coal, and because of the 

 mode of its occurrence and the conditions of samples, I would 

 say ffood Neiocastle coal. 



To that class of indications, by which i ignorant or mistaken 

 men, misnamed practical, have been too often enabled to find 

 dupes for their ruinous speculations belong among my tSoutli 

 Australian experiences decomposed slate, mica, black alluvium, 

 oxide of manganese, and tufaceous limonite ; whilst in addi- 

 tion there is a wide-spread belief that the iron-charged water 

 of a spring, the colour of a rock, or the association of certain 



