Fingal and East Coast. 59 



Putting together these facts, it is scarcely possible to 

 resist the conclusion that, at the period of deposition of 

 the coal, a field of kindred quality, and more or less 

 regular and continuous (dependent on the then existing 

 character and local differences of level of the solid surface), 

 extended over an area in this district equal to about 400 or 

 500 square miles. How much of this large deposit 

 has been suffered to outlive the turmoil, disruption, and 

 destruction incident to the development of volcanic forces, 

 and the wear and tear of tides and receding floods 

 of water, can only be determined, even approximately, by 

 a close and connected examination of the associated strata, 

 wherever sections of them are available for the purpose. 



In the mean time, no reasonable doubt can be enter- 

 tained that, for all practical purposes of the present day, 

 an inexhaustible supply of good coal exists at Mount 

 Nicholas and Fingal. Whether it may be profitable to 

 send it to market, or practicable to consume it product- 

 ively in manufactures or otherwise on the spot, is for 

 capitalists and speculators to consider, and probably for 

 unforeseen circumstances at length to decide. 



The surface of the tract of country which I have desig- 

 nated a plateau of greenstone is so much broken by 

 abrupt water-courses, and so thickly covered with scrubby 

 underwood, as to be almost impervious in many places, 

 especially toward the coast, and in the immediate vicinity 

 of the Douglas River, rendering exploration there at 

 once toilsome, and a matter of extreme difiiculty. 



Before noticing particularly the coal at the Douglas 

 River, I have to observe, that from the eruptive plateau 

 which I have described there runs a spur of greenstone 

 hills down toward the head of Swanport, between the 

 fewan River and the Apsley. From this spur to the 

 ocean, in an eastern direction, in every water-course 

 along the foot of the hills, the sandstone which overlies 



