Schouten Island. 7 



duction, slow combustion is desirable, as some of them 

 are fusible and easily run, involving surrounding objects, 

 and impeding the general process of expulsion of sulphur. 



The inferior coal of the subordinate slaty layers would 

 be adequate to this purpose ; while mixed portions of 

 the bituminous and carbonaceous qualities would answer 

 well for the subsequent processes of reduction, where a 

 full and effective heat is required to be at once applied. 



More than 3 feet of the Schouten seam are bituminous, 

 emitting black smoke, and yielding a white flame, and a 

 powerful heat. 



This would suit well for domestic purposes, and for the 

 preparation of illuminating gas. With these objects in 

 view, the best of it might therefore be set apart in 

 working it out. 



The inferior and mixed qualities would, as I have said, 

 be adequate to all the necessities of smelting furnaces ; 

 while the coal taken generally from the seams, after 

 rejecting a few inches of stony and earthy anthracite 

 at the very top, and two narrow bands of hard tena- 

 cious stony matter at and a little below the middle of it, 

 with a few inches of the slaty matter beneath, would be 

 found I think quite equal to the requirements of Steam 

 Navigation on long voyages, where it is essential that the 

 highest and most expeditious heating power should be 

 comprised in the smallest possible compass. 



The situation in which this coal occurs could scarcely 

 be more favourable for shipment ; and the position of the 

 beds falling about one foot in 5J or 6, as they run 

 diagonally down the slope of a moderately steep bank 

 capped with greenstone, oifers every facility for carrying 

 into the seam drifts and shafts, wherever they may be 

 needed, for riddance of water, for air-courses, &c. 



It is not probable that water would be troublesome in 

 working this coal, at least from the sea level to the crop 

 of the seam. 



