482 GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 
whose report gives proof of a very careful survey and inspection of what he 
terms ‘the magnificent coal seams of the east coast,” says they extend over a 
large area. Of the quality of this coal, he states in general terms that “it is 
first-rate, and will be found equal to any or all of the purposes to which the 
best English coal is applied.” He says, again, “ the coal is of the finest quality, 
of a deep black colour, with a rich, bright, and splendent lustre, like that of 
resin or jet. It is easily frangible, and ignites readily, burning in the mass with 
a wild ruddy flame, and a strong glare.” In the immediate vicinity of Fingal 
lies the Steiglitz coal field, at a very practicable distance from the two shipping 
places of George’s Bay and Falmouth. Steiglitz main stream, in the Mount 
Nicholas range, which is twelve feet in thickness, is a distance of twelve miles 
from the sea by a road already made. 
The island of Tasmania resembles Wales in the character and position of its 
coal, which is anthracite in the southern part of both countries. Extending 
northerly, it gradually loses that character, by becoming semi-bituminous. It 
is, however, important for colonial interests that the use and value of anthracite 
coal should be properly made known. Mr. Taylor, in his ‘‘ Statistics of Coal,’ 
states ‘that the researches of scientific men have proved that anthracite coal 
was formerly bituminous, having been deprived of volatile matter by the action 
of internal heat; leaving a greater amount of carbon, the excess of which 
stamps the value of coal for general purposes, except in the manufacture of - 
gas ;” and he adds that in the smelting of ores anthracite is preferred to bitu- 
minous coal, which cannot be used in the furnace in a crude state, but must 
first be converted into coke. Anthracite coal is obtained on Schonter Island, 
on the coast, where vessels may anchor within 200 feet of the coal pit. The 
seam is from six to seven inches thick, and consists of layers of anthracite, of a 
porous and coke-like character, with small layers in succession of bituminous — 
coal. The miners state that they could afford to deliver it at the water’s edge 
for 4s. or 5s. per ton. At South Cape a seam from eighteen to twenty inches 
thick is found, but not worked. The coal is highly carbonaceous, but largely 
mixed with iron pyrites. At Richmond it crops out on the west bank of the 
Coal River, about one mile from a point on the estuary where vessels of twenty 
tons may load. The seams vary from two to two and a half feet in thickness. 
At Newtown, within two miles of Hobart Town, the capital, anthracitic coal is 
obtained in six shafts, at depths varying from thirty-five to eighty feet, and the 
supply sent into town is considerable. It sells from 25s. to 27s. per ton. At 
Tasman’s Peninsula, known in market as Port Arthur coal, it has been worked 
largely for nearly thirty years, and, though a coarse anthracite coal, it throws 
out great heat, and is much valued for furnaces. It sells from 30s. to 35s. per 
ton. Bituminous coal is found at Douglas River, on the north-east coast, about 
four miles from the sea. Some of the seems are eight feet thick, and so close 
do they often run to the surface that in a fifty-feet shaft six seams of coal were 
cut, A seam of twenty inches has been worked for the Hobart Town market, 
where the coal is sold at 30s. to 40s. per ton. In the interior this coal crops 
out in the bed of the Ouse River, where the seam is four feet thick, under a 
four-feet bed of pipe-clay. Bituminous coal is also obtained in the North, at 
