218 



Premising that the evidence is very incomplete, I may say 

 that the coal measures of the South and East of Tasmania 

 may probably be roughly classed with the upper coal 

 measures ; the marine beds of the Mersey with the upper 

 marine ; the Mersey coal with the lower coal measures ; and 

 the sandy and calcareous rocks with marine fossils, which 

 occur near Hobart and in numerous localities on the South 

 and East, as well as in the interior, with the lower marine 

 beds of ISTew South Wales. 



In a paper read before the Eoyal Society, on the 8th July, 

 1873, I mentioned some of the circumstances which made it 

 improbable that any lower seams would be found in the 

 Mersey coalfield. Nothing, however, had been disclosed by 

 mining operations which could be taken as conclusive evidence 

 on this point, and, to set the question at rest, it was 

 necessary to have recourse to other than private enterprise. 

 The boring at Tarleton has not yet, so far as I can judge 

 from casual reports, yielded any encouraging results ; but 

 this is no more than might have been expected, and the 

 object for which the work was undertaken by the Government 

 will not have been attained until a greater depth than 200 or 

 300ft. has been reached. 



The first suggestion in reference to exploration for coal 

 near the Cascades Brewery came from abroad. At a meeting 

 of the Eoyal Society of New South Wales, Mr. C. S. 

 Wilkinson, the Government Geologist, drew attention to a 

 collection of fossils from the above locality, and remarked 

 that as seams of bituminous coal and kerosene shale occur 

 in formations containing these fossils in New South Wales, 

 it was probable that coal might be found associated with 

 them in Tasmania. An opinion from so eminent an authority 

 necessarily carries great weight, but it is right to say that 

 Mr. Wilkinson spoke from an examination of the fossils 

 alone, and had nothing before him to show whether they 

 came from rocks corresponding with the upper marine, or 

 with the lower marine beds of New South Wales. 



The Government having been urged to test the question of 

 the existence of seams of coal near Hobart, at a greater 

 depth than had been reached in the workings at New Town, 

 Mr. F. M. Krause, F.G.S., of Ballarat, was engaged to report 

 on the subject. After carefully examining the New Town 

 coalfield, and ascertaining that the lower part of the series 

 was already exposed in natural sections, Mr. Krause selected 

 two spots in the underlying marine formation, at one of 

 which the diamond drill has been at work for some months. 

 Supposing that Mr. Krause' s theory as to the age of the 

 New Town coal measures, and that of the marine beds, 

 which latter he classes as dyas, is correct, there are reasonable 



