between Western, Port and Caj^e Lipirap. 251 



sliipment, being about fourteen miles from Western Port on 

 one side, and from Anderson's Inlet on the other. But 

 though not visible at the surface, there is good reason to 

 believe that the Cape Patterson coal seams extend with 

 the other carboniferous strata from Griffith's Point to 

 Anderson's Inlet, at either of which places they might be 

 advantageously worked. Indeed, a thin seam of coal has 

 actually been worked at a former period not very far from 

 Griffith's Point ; while at Anderson's Inlet three seams of 

 black coaly shale crop out, very similar in character to beds 

 which at Cape Patterson are closely associated with the coal. 

 The actual existence at these points of shipment-of the Cape 

 Patterson seams, or of any other and perhaps richer deposits, 

 together with their thickness and depth from the surface, 

 can only be determined by boring. 



The first operation, then, for any parties intending to 

 mine for coal should be to cause a deep boring to be made 

 near Griffith's Point, and another at Anderson's Inlet, to 

 prove the actual nature of the successive strata. And when 

 the existence of good seams of coal at either place has been 

 thus proved, their superficial extent might readily be 

 determined by other borings, at certain distance from the 

 first. These borings might be carried on at a moderate 

 expense, and by this mode of proceeding all possibility 

 would be precluded of a lavish and profitless outlay in sink- 

 ing pits for beds of coal which did not really exist, or were 

 not worth working. In short, the adventurers would reduce 

 their speculation almost to a certainty. 



As regards the quality of the coal hitherto found, it will 

 be enough here to say that the thickest or middle seam is of 

 first-rate excellence, well fitted for the forge and for domestic 

 use, and abounding with gas for lighting. It is also very 

 readily worked. The west seam is of an inferior kind, and 

 carries embedded in it a thin band of shale. The fire- clay 



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