at the Don and Tamar Rivers. 105 
that of Tasmania of the present epoch. ‘The tertiary beds 
at Macquarie Harbour lie in a nearly horizontal position, and 
contain seams of lignite, nearly approaching jet, of varying 
and often of considerable thickness and extent. Mr. Reid, 
in a shaft sunk at Whirlpool Reach, passed through a thin 
seam of jet or lignite imbedded in clayey schists, under 
which lay a bed of quicksand, which obliged him to aban- 
don the sinking. ‘The two formations, that at Macquarie 
Harbour and this on the Tamar, appear to be of the same 
age, geologically speaking, and neither is likely to yield a 
good economical coal,—an opinion which I have ventured 
to give to Mr. Reid, Mr. Wilmore, Mr. Ralston, and other 
persons interested in the discovery of coal on the banks of 
the Tamar River. ‘The sandstones and brown shaly beds 
seen along the margins of the “‘ West and Middle Arms” of 
the estuary of the Tamar dip so as to pass under the edges 
of these tertiary beds, and migrate into a long series of 
distinctly marked paleeozoic rocks, believed to le beneath 
our carboniferous system wherever they are developed in 
connection. It is therefore possible, though most unlikely, 
that a large fragment of bituminous coal, overrun on its sur- 
face with the calcareous deposit of coral insects, and which 
was asserted to have been recently broken off and heaved up 
from the bottom of the Tamar River, nearly opposite to 
Mr. Wilmore’s house, should actually have been met with 
there 7 sitw; but in such case it must have been torn from 
a suite of beds lying entirely under the tertiary series now 
described, and dipping in a contrary direction. 
I embraced the opportunity of being in the neighbour- 
hood to visit, and very cursorily examine, some slate quarries 
about a mile to the east of the George Town and Launces- 
ton Road, nearly opposite to Point Rapid. The formation 
appears to be extensive, and the quality of the slate superior 
