Fingal and East Coast. 61 



seam where it is of workable thickness. It measured 

 only 20 inches where I saw it. 



From the Doug^las River to Wabbs' Harbour there is 

 an open beach of five or six miles, backed up by low 

 sandy ridges, within which are several lagoons. About 

 two miles inland the flat sandy country gives place to 

 greenstone hills. 



Wabbs' Harbour is a narrow gullet, gorge, or channel, 

 having a length of 250 or 300 yards, by a width of 70 

 to 100 yards : it is formed by a small island of granite, 

 placed directly off a projecting and low promontory or 

 point of the same rock, from which the coast on either 

 hand retires to a considerable depth. 



To the southward of this point the shore is unintermit- 

 tingly granitic and iron-bound. To the north of it, at two 

 miles distance, is Diamond Island ; and Wabbs' Bay, 

 having a sandy beach, lies between. Cattle vessels from 

 the Straits frequently put in here, it is said, for water. 

 Granite rocks line the coast from opposite this Island to 

 the commencement of the long sandy beach extending to 

 the Douglas River. 



About a mile or a mile and a quarter from the Doug- 

 las, the newer yellowish-brown sandstone walls in the 

 beach, with a continuation of slightly inclined and wavy 

 beds, forming a cliff 8 to 10 feet in height. Under it are 

 occasionally seen beds of a more compact whitish-grey 

 sandstone, with which it is not quite conformable. In 

 the overlying sandstone there occur numerous thin and 

 irregular seams and masses of anthracitic coal and lignite. 

 There is also in it a great abundance of fossil wood, 

 partly mineralised with silex, and partly converted into 

 very hard incombustible anthracitic coal : but the most 

 striking feature is, that several stumps of trees occur fos- 

 silised there in a nearly vertical position, with the rami- 

 fications of their roots still attached, and spreading 

 naturally around. 



