68 EXISTENCE OF LOWER COAL MEASUEES AT POET CYGNET, 



terrace, the remains of wliicTi are also found forming escarp- 

 ments liere and there against the neighbouring greenstone 

 spurs on both sides of the main divide. Some of these sand- 

 stones of the lower coal measures are found in a nearly 

 horizontal position or with a slight dip to the south, at an 

 altitude of nearly 600 feet along the cuttings of the Gai'den 

 Island Creek tramway, leading upwards in the direction of 

 The Gap to Long Bay. 



The higher ridges are clothed with the prevailing trees of 

 the blue-gum (Eucalyptus globulus), some of which attain 

 immense proportions. The lower butt of one of these giants 

 pointed out to the writer by Mr. Ford measured about 55 

 feet in circumference. 



The coal seam of Mount Cygnet is worked by an inclined 

 adit or drive on the northern slope, near the bed of one of 

 the tributaries of Gardnei-'s Creek, and the coal is carried a 

 distance of about two miles westward by a wooden tramway 

 to the jetty at the township of Welsh, near Port Cygnet. 



The main drive from the creek level follows the seam of 

 coal, which averages about 2 feet 8 inches thick, at an angle 

 of about 1 in 6, dipping S.S.E. into the mount. The extreme 

 length reached by this main drive at present is about 6| 

 chains, and in this distance two step faults running east and 

 west have been met with successively, throwing down the 

 seam 2 feet 3 inches and 2 feet respectively without 

 materially affecting the angle of dip. The coal measures 

 have been pierced near this spot by several bores, and the 

 evidence collected shows that they are frequently faulted and 

 dislocated to a very considerable extent. The slopes along 

 the valley have been subjected to much denudation, and 

 hence it is difficult to predict, with anything approaching 

 certainty, the exact position where the coal seam may be 

 struck, even in the immediate vicinity of the present workings. 

 It is also inij)ossible to say, at present, whether there is more 

 than the one seam, as no bore has yet pierced beyond the 

 first one met with, and in each case the seam so reached 

 appears to be identical with the one now being worked ; for 

 although the levels at which the coal seam was struck are 

 extremely variable, the differences in absolute level are no 

 more than might be occasioned by the angle of dip, and 

 especially by the numerous faults and dislocations. 



The seam at Mount Cygnet is invariably ovei'laid by a 

 greyish flaggy sandstone, which, according to the extent of 

 dentidation, may be found from a few feet to 100 or 2O0 feet 

 in thickness. Thus, although the seam at the workings crop 

 out in the creek, a shaft cut to it about two chains from this 



