2 Schouten Island, 



It does not appear that any great difficulty would be 

 experienced in constructing an open pier with a platform 

 of plank, along which the coal might in ordinary weather 

 be conveyed upon a tramway on wooden rails, and 

 delivered at the termination into a barge, lighter, or 

 larger vessel of moderate tonnage, in smooth water, and 

 beyond the swell setting upon the beach. 



In moderate weather a boat can land without danger 

 or difficultly within a few yards of the coal seam ; and in 

 the finer part of the year, when easterly winds prevail, 

 boats might thus with great ease and expedition be 

 loaded at the beach. 



The whole eastern side of the Schouten Island, to the 

 extent of about frds of its area, is of massive granite, 

 rising into high, rugged, and picturesque hills. 



The remaining third of the surface of the Island con- 

 sists of greenstone eminences ; lofty and barren enough 

 for the most part, but still more undulating and rounded 

 in their outline, and more prolific of vegetation and 

 timber trees, than the granite section, which, except in 

 deep ravines, and around the base of the hills, supports 

 only, and at long intervals, a scanty show of scrubby 

 and stunted plants. 



On the more gentle slopes of the greenstone hills, and 

 their varied undulations, there is besides a forest of gum 

 trees {Eucalyptus of various species), many stately 

 specimens of Oyster Bay pine {Callitris Australis), 

 with a good deal of grass and other herbage fit for sheep 

 and cattle. 



With a view to the maintenance of a number of men 

 to work the coal, it is worth noticing, that from 200 to 

 300 sheep have at one time run and improved in con- 

 dition upon the Island. 



The greenstone is generally prismatic or schistose in 

 structure ; but sometimes it is massive, very compact. 



