April 23, 1885] 



NATURE 



583 



called on to play an important part in producing such an 

 aptitude fur early development, since all must essentially 

 result from the nature and action of alimentation, must be 

 one of the first to undergo modifications." 



We do not question this conclusion, but the teeth and 

 horns seem at present to have been slightly influenced by 

 the "improvements" we have been considering. It is 

 true that the art of breeding can greatly modify the 

 horns : it can, in fact, obliterate them in horned cattle, 

 and produce them in the hornless breeds, but this is quite 

 apart from early maturity, which does not necessarily 

 modify to any great extent, or with any certainty, either the 

 horns or the teeth. Occasional examples of a very early de- 

 velopment of the teeth, such as M. Regnault describes, do 

 sometimes occur, but they are so rare as to be regarded 

 as abnormal, and the rule, with the improved as with the 

 older breeds of cattle, is that they produce two permanent 

 teeth at two years old, and two others each year till they 

 are Ave years old, when they are, as farmers say, " full- 

 mouthed." It is not improbable, however, that the not 

 very unfrequent appearance of the first permanent teeth 

 at less than two years old, as well as the irregular denti- 

 tion of highly-bred pigs, are manifestations that further 

 and future changes may still be anticipated. Among 

 many useful agricultural pamphlets that have been issued 

 from the office of The Field, it is stated that one will 

 appear shortly on " The Early Maturity of Live Stock." 



H. E. 



THE BORNEO COAL-FIELDS 



HAVING recently visited some of the coal-fields in 

 the Island of Borneo, it may be interesting to your 

 readers to know the result. The subject was one of 

 special interest to me, and its investigation was one of 

 the principal objects I proposed to myself in my travels 

 in the East. Just before leaving Australia I had published 

 in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South 

 Wales a complete history of the known coal flora of 

 Australia, and a review of its geological position. The 

 relation of the Australian to the Indian coal flora is well 

 known. It seemed hardly possible that in Borneo, where 

 such-extensive coal-formations exist, but that some con- 

 necting link would be found between Australia and 

 i M ]i.. 



The subject is very little known. The late Mr. Motley 

 had the management of the Labuan Mines. His are the 

 only writings on the age of the Borneo coal which are 

 known to me. What he wrote is quoted by Mr. Wallace 

 in his work on " Australasia." He regarded the beds as 

 Tertiary, and the fossils as of species of plants and marine 

 mollusca now living on the coast. He speaks of cocoa- 

 nuts and the peculiar winged seeds of Dipterocarpus (so 

 common in Borneo; being common also in the coal at 

 Labuan. He thought that the beds evidently originated 

 in the most recent times from masses of drift-wood 

 brought down by the rivers and stranded on the coast, in 

 the way the traveller sees so often repeated on the Borneo 

 coast at the present day. He also stated that the Labuan 

 coal was not, properly speaking, coal, but more like drift- 

 wood partially bituminised. 



Mr. Motley subsequently was killed by the natives at 

 Banjermassim. It is now six or seven years since the 

 mines at Labuan have been worked. I am not sure that 

 he had the same impressions about the South Borneo 

 coal as of the Labuan beds, but I think I am not far out 

 in thinking that he regarded all Borneo coal-beds as 

 belonging to one immense Tertiary formation. 



There arc few countries of the world, except, perhaps, 

 Eastern Australia, where coal is so extensively developed 

 as in Borneo. Thick seams crop out in innumerable 

 places on the coast and on the banks of the rivers. In 

 some of the streams of North Borneo I have seen water- 



worn and rounded fragments of coal forming the entire 

 shingle bed of the channel. In some places, again, there 

 are outcrops with seams of good coal 26 feet thick. The 

 coal-formation is the one prevailing rock of the coast. It 

 forms the principal outcrop about Sarawak. At Labuan, 

 also, no other rock can be seen. Lining the banks of the 

 Bruni River, I only saw picturesque hills of very old Car- 

 boniferous shale. All the grand scenery of the entrance 

 to the port of Gaya is made up of escarpment of coal- 

 rocks. At Kirdat it is the same, and so I might go on 

 with a long list of coal-bearing localities. 



Now, in such a large island as Borneo, with such a 

 wondrous mountain system, it would be absurd to suppose 

 that all this coal belonged to one age. We might as well 

 suppose the same of the comparatively small islands of 

 Great Britain, and yet what an error that would be. In 

 Eastern Australia and in Tasmania, beds of coal of very 

 different age lie close together. I have found the same 

 in Borneo. Whether there is Tertiary coal or not in the 

 island, I cannot say ; but there is Mesozoic coal, and 

 probably Pakeozoic coal, and coals like those of Newcastle 

 in Australia, whose position hovers between the true 

 Palaeozoic and the Trias. To begin with Labuan: the 

 works there have been long since abandoned ; the adits 

 are parti}' filled with water, and the shafts have fallen in, 

 so that it is next to impossible to explore the mine now. 

 But there is plenty of coal and shale on the surface, and 

 there are excellent sections on the sea-cliffs close by. 

 The formation is a drifted sandstone with much false 

 bedding. It contains not a trace of lime or any marine 

 organism. Under the microscope the siliceous grains are 

 seen to be rounded. I think it is an Eolian formation 

 with lines of rounded pebbles of small size. The whole 

 deposit is very similar to the Hawkesbury sandstone of 

 Australia, which is of Oolitic age. In both formations 

 there are roots and carbonised fragments of coniferous 

 wood, in which the tissue is still to be traced. The coal 

 on the surface is a truly bitumenised coal, very brittle, 

 and like what we get in the same rocks in Australia. The 

 few plant-remains I saw were not referable to any known 

 genus ; they were like Zygophyllites, and perhaps these 

 are the plants which have been identified as wings of 

 Dipterocarpus, which they remotely resemble. 



I saw no marine fossil, and the absence of any lime in 

 the beds makes one think that those which were dis- 

 covered did not come from any of the strata which are 

 exposed in section. Sir Hugh Low, who resided many 

 years at Labuan, gave me some casts of marine fossils 

 taken from the locality. They were casts not easily 

 identified, and certainly not like any now existing of the 

 coast. The molluscan fauna of the locality is that of the 

 usual Indian Oceanic type, with a slight admixture of 

 Chinese and Philippine forms. In all recent beach re- 

 mains in these parts of the world there is a large admixture 

 of urchins, corals, &c. The aspect of the matrix was not 

 of this character. It was much more like a blue-clay such 

 as we have in Australia above the Mesozoic coal. 



On the whole, I am inclined to regard the Labuan beds 

 as of Oolitic age, and not Tertiary. Of the value of the 

 coal-seams I had no means of judging. The amount on 

 the surface showed that there was plenty to be had. 

 Labuan is a naval coaling station. Stores of coal are 

 brought out from England at a great expense for the use 

 of her Majesty's navy, and if the same thing could be got 

 in the island the enormous advantages are obvious. I 

 think it should be further tested. 



About fifty miles away to the south-east is the mouth of 

 the Bruni river. Here the rocks are quite of a different 

 character and much older. They are sandstones, shales, 

 and grits, with ferruginous joints. The beds are inclined 

 at angles of 25 to 45 degrees. They are often altered into 

 a kind of chert. At Moarra there is an outcrop of coal- 

 seams 20, 25, and 26 feet thick. The coal is of excellent 

 quality, quite bituminised and not brittle. The beds are 



