250 0/i the Coal Mea,'it/res ulomf the Coast 



variegated by veins and patches of redder tint. Beneath 

 are a succession of beds of grey sandstone, hardened chxy, 

 black and blue shales, with seams of coal and fire-clay, and 

 a conglomerate of rolled fragments of clayslate cemented 

 together by a silicious paste. Imbedded in this con- 

 glomerate are found nodules (not rolled fragments) and 

 irregular beds of a hard crystalline rock : these somewhat 

 resemble in form and location, though not in mineral 

 character, the " balls" and beds of iron-stone in the coal 

 fields of England and Wales. Veins and bunches of lignite, 

 and numerous fragments of fossil wood, are also found 

 embedded in the grey sandstone. This sandstone offers 

 another peculiarity. Portions of the beds near their surfaces 

 have undergone a complete change, and have now a hard 

 and blackened surface and fracture, and a prismatic 

 structure, presenting all the appearance of the influences of 

 igneous agency. It might have been supposed that this 

 change originated in these parts having been in contact 

 with igneous rock ; but the fact that the unchanged sand- 

 stone lies immediately upon that which has been metamor- 

 phosed proves such an hypothesis to be incorrect. This 

 hardened sandstone occurs, not in continuous beds, but in 

 detached patches, which, being better able to resist the 

 erosion of the waves, rise above the level of the contiguous 

 rocks, and present much the appearance of worn street- 

 paving. 



The coal measures are much heaved and dislocated by 

 trap dykes and other eruptive rocks, but their average dip 

 appears to be to the west and north-west ; and hence at Cape 

 Patterson, the most southerly point in their range, the 

 deeper beds crop out to view. 



Cape Patterson, where the coal itself rises to the surface, 

 is rendered wholly inaccessible from the sea by a heavy 

 rolling surf, while it is just midway between two points of 



