36 



THE MERSEY COAL MEASURES. 



By T. Stephens, M.A. 



(Read July 8th, 1873.) 



All wlio are interested in the progress of Tasmania must 

 regret the discontinuance of the geological survey, and the 

 more so because there are so few here who have at the same 

 time the inclination and the opportunity of prosecuting what 

 is certainly, in a new country, the most important branch of 

 scientific investigation. It is a commonly prevalent notion 

 that there is nothing to be done in the way of geological dis- 

 covery in the settled districts of Tasmania ; whereas the fact 

 is that, excepting reports on special districts, we have no 

 information of any practical value which can be made available 

 for the guidance of an intelligent prospector ; and even these 

 are deprived of much of their intended usefulness by reason of 

 the interruption of the survey before it was possible to establish 

 a satisfactory connection between the formations examined in 

 various parts of the colony. 



I have lately read an interesting paper on the Mersey coal- 

 field, written by Mr. Haiusworth, of Latrobe, and published in 

 the Launceston Examiner in September, 1872. After noticing 

 the characteristic features of the Mersey coal measures, and dis- 

 cussing the qucestio vexata of the age of the Newcastle coal 

 seams, he concludes an argument, which is distinguished no 

 less for the intelligence which it displays, than for the modesty 

 with which the writer's views are stated, in the following 

 words : — " The practical result to be deduced from the fore- 

 going facts, and the one most interesting to the general news- 

 paper reader is, that the Mersey beds are identifiable in age with 

 the West Maitland beds, a locality situated four miles north- 

 west of the Newcastle coal-field in New South Wales. In West 

 Maitland five seams of coal have been found, all occurring 

 beneath certain fossiliferous beds which are identical, as regards 

 age, with the Mersey fossiliferous beds ; and though it does not 

 follow that the same number of seams will be found in the 

 Mersey coal-field, the facts support the inference that other 

 and thicker seams may exist below the present one." Those 

 who take any interest in the subject are probably familiar with 

 the controversy between the Rev. W. B. Clarke and Professor 

 M'Coy as to the conclusions to be drawn from the palseon- 

 tological evidence afforded by the fauna and flora of the coal 

 measures of New South Wales, and it is not my intention at 

 present to refer to it, except for the purpose of noticing an 

 important point in the evidence connecting the Mersey beds with 



