Coal- Seams of Van Diemens Land. 117 



hard anthracite coal, of very poor quality and slaty structure, 

 crops out. Immediately underlying it are thin beds of grey- 

 ish-blue shale, with impressions of fern leaves, &c. ; and 

 resting on it is a band of hard, grey, nodular shale, -which 

 is again overlaid by thick bedded sandstones (yellow and 

 brown soft freestone), enclosing numerous fragments of 

 roots, stems, and branches of fossilized trees converted into 

 silica or iron, but still presenting the most perfect woody 

 structure. 



About two hundred yards higher up the river a solid mass 

 of greenstone presents itself, occupying both banks of the 

 stream for some distance, and apparently completely cutting 

 off the continuity of the coal-measure series in this direc- 

 tion, 



I was unable to extend my observations above this point, 

 but I believe that at Hamilton, some ten or twelve miles 

 higher up the river, the coal again crops out in a seam 

 upwards of eight feet* in thickness. 



If of good quality and sufficient extent, a seam of this 

 thickness would, I should think, well repay the outlay neces- 

 sary for the construction of a tramway for transporting it to 

 the shipping-place at New Norfolk, — a distance, I believe, 

 of about eighteen miles. 



What the dip and direction of this bed is, I was unable 

 to ascertain. Should it be the same as the small 20-inch 

 seam above described, viz. (W. 20° S.) J0°, and is not cut 

 off by faults, or by greenstones or other igneous rocks, we 

 might expect to find it much nearer New Norfolk in a south- 

 easterly direction, and on the south side of the Derwent. 



* The seam of coal cut through in the vicinity of Hamilton by Mr. 

 Chilton, in the process of sinking a well in his farm-yard, was at a depth 

 of 40 feet; the quality was highly bituminous, and the thickness 4 

 feet —J. M. 



