TEANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 641 



work during the past year, with a total output of 365,000 tons. The largest colliery, 

 known as the Wellington, works a seam 9 feet in thickness, while the Nanaimo, 

 which has heen in operation nearly thirty years, works two seams, the upper being 

 from 6 to 10 feet thick, while the lower has a thickness of 7 feet. Most of the 

 coal raised is shipped to San Francisco, but some is sent to Alaska and some to the 

 Sandwich Islands. 



Blocks of almost every coal mentioned in this paper were to be seen in the 

 Canadian Court of the Colonial and Indian Exhibition. The author desires to 

 acknowledge his indebtedness to the Reports of the Geological Survey of Canada, 

 to the Reports of the Departments of Mines of Nova Scotia and of British Columbia, 

 as well as to several gentlemen who have kindly given him information on certain 

 points connected with the subject. 



In 1885, 1,717,205 tons of coal were raised in Canada, being nearly double the 

 amount raised in 1875, 



4. On the Coal Deposits of South Africa.^ 

 By Professor T. Rupert Jones, F.It.8., F.G.S. 



In Cape Colony native coal is chiefly obtained from the Stormberg range, near 

 Cypher-gat and Molteno, not far from Burgersdorp. The geological arrangement 

 of the strata is — 



Upper — Stormberg Beds (with Coal). 

 Middle — Beaufort Beds (with Dicynodon, &c.). 

 Karoo Formation, -| Lower — Kimberley Shales and Conglomerates (equivalent to 

 the Ecca Beds, according to Mr. Dunn) ; Ecca Beds with 

 V the great Ecca or Dwyka Conglomerates. 



77(6 Stormberg Coal. — In the southern part of the Stormbergen, at and near 

 Molteno, the coal, worked in numerous adits and pits, seems to belong to one main 

 'seam,' made up of several layers, of which 34 J inches are coal and 15| inches 

 shale. Another seam, with about 50 inches of coal and 9 inches of shale, coming 

 out at the foot of Bushman's Hoek, not far from Molteno, is probably at a some- 

 what different level. Faults may have disarranged the stratification here and 

 there. On the Indwe River, in the Dordrecht district (about fifty miles eastward), 

 a seam of coal with shale partings (7' 6" of coal and 6' 7" of shale) occurs at a 

 different level from that of the foregoing ; but the workings on all the seams in the 

 two districts are said to be within 300 or 400 feet above the level of the Karoo 

 sandstone lying below (Dunn, ' Report,' 1878, p, 20; and Green, ' Report,' 1883, 



P-24)- . .... 



The coal is very laminar, with impressions of ferns and cycadaceous leaves, and 



flattened carbonaceous tree-trunks, without any ' seat-earth.' In these composite 

 coal-seams some of the 'laminje are made up of a large number of alternations of thin 

 plates of coal and very thin films of black mud,' which give rise to the large percent- 

 age of ash. One seam gives coal of different value at two diggings, at Molteno and 

 Van Zyls, a mile distant. In the latter case the microscope shows that 'the 

 carbonaceous portion seems to be intermingled, and, as it were, wrapped up, in the 

 most intimate way, with the mineral matter of the ash.' 



The several exposures, natural and artificial, of these Stormberg coals (near 

 Burghersdorf, on the Indwe and on the Kraii River) are described in detail by 

 Mr. E. J. Dunn, Mr. F. W. North, and Professor A. II. Green in their respective 

 reports. Outcrops of coal may be looked for on the slopes of the Stormberg and 

 adjacent hills in strata at or about the same level as those at Bushman's Hoek in 

 the Stormberg. 



Some large examples of the coals themselves were shown in the Colonial and 

 Indian Exhibition, and are described in the official catalogues. 



The geological age of the great Karoo series of strata, as shown by the fossils, 

 and by their relative position to the Palaeozoic rocks of the Witteberg and Zuur- 

 berg, is probably Permi-triassic or Lower Triassic. Their possible relationship 



' Published in full in the Mining Journal, Dec. 4, 1886. 

 1886. T T 



