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information regarding the various beds associated with the 

 coal seams. The principal scam crops out near the Longford 

 and Muddy Plains Road in a creek which runs a somewhat 

 sinuous course, in a narrow shallow valley, between low 

 flattened hills and ridges of greenstone rock. As yet, the 

 ground has not been fully explored, and the relation of the 

 coal measures to the greenstones are not satisfactorily deter- 

 mined, that is — it has yet to be shown whether the green- 

 stones have intruded and spread as caps over the coal 

 measures, or whether the latter forms a small protected basin 

 abutting and running out against the former. 



In the latter case the extent of the basin north an'd east 

 would be very limited or greatly broken up. Mr. Brain 

 has ascertained that the principal seams tend to thin orit 

 northward against the neighbouring greenstone hills, while 

 shafts sunk southward on the property of Messrs. Wise and 

 Mason prove the gradual thickening of the seams in a 

 southerly direction, towards which they gently dip. This 

 circumstance had given hopes to many that the beds might 

 be found extending in the direction of the Longford Plains, 

 where there is a great expanse of country apparently undis- 

 turbed by intrusive greenstones, although superficially 

 occupied by a great thickness of Tertiary beds composed of 

 clays, lignites, pebble drift, sandstones, etc. 



Mr. Ritchie and others have tested the underlying rocks at 

 Longford to a depth of nearly 600 feet by means of the dia- 

 mond-drill, but with the exception of a greyish sandstone at the 

 greatest depth, whose position is doubtful, the core throughout 

 consisted of sections of the well-known members of the 

 Launceston Tertiary Basin. Bands of lignite, clays, and 

 sandstones, with impressions of Betula Launcestonensis 

 (JohnstonJ, and other well-known Tertiary plants, were very 

 common throughout the whole depth of the respective bores. 

 There was nothing to be found in the character of the lowest 

 rocks, composed of a blue or greyish sandstone, which would 

 enable anyone to determine whether it belonged to the 

 Tertiary group or to an older system. 



The coal measures may yet be discovered at a greatei depth 

 at Longford, although, like at Hunter's Mill, Perth, it is 

 possible that the Mesozoic rocks may have thinned out against 

 the mudstones of Upper Pakeozoic age. If coal had been 

 struck at Longford there would be some probability that 

 valuable coal seams existed underneath the greater part of 

 the undisturbed plains of the Launceston Tertiary Basin. 



About four shafts, from 20 to 70 feet in depth, have been 

 sunk to the coal seams at Norwich, and a limited quantity of 

 coal has been raised from the principal seam, which varies 

 from 3 to 4 feet in thickness, and the coal, though often 



