126 Coal- Seams of Fan Diemen^s Land. 



plateaus below high-water markj hacked hy steep hillocks 

 of blown sand. 



At Long Point granite, with vertical clay slates and sand- 

 stones resting against it, is exposed ; and thence to St. 

 Patrick's Head and Falmouth, with only one exception, 

 about two miles south of Piccaninni Point, where a very 

 coarse granitic conglomerate, probably the base of the car- 

 boniferous series, is exposed on the back, dipping south 5°. 



Granite and clay-slate are the only rocks seen in place ; 

 the before-mentioned six miles of coast occupied by carboni- 

 ferous strata varies in width from one to four miles, at wbich 

 distance inland the country rises into massive greenstone 

 ridges against the steep escarpments, and in the hollows of 

 which the carboniferous beds have in all probability been 

 deposited. 



One is irresistibly led to this conclusion from the appa- 

 rently undisturbed and unaltered condition of the latter, 

 even where they are in closest proximity to the igneous 

 mass. At the southern extremity of the above tract of coun- 

 try are situated the Douglas River Coal Company's works. 



The land occupied by the Company extends over about 

 2100 acres, bounded on the north by the Denison Eivulet. 



Over nearly the whole of this area workable seams of Coal 

 will, I think, be found to exist. Numerous shafts and bore- 

 holes have been sunk, and in most of tbem Dr. Milligan 

 states that seams of Coal have been cut. All the shafts 

 were at the period of my visit full of water ; I was therefore 

 unable to inspect the seams, nor could I at the time obtain 

 the measurements of the different strata penetrated in the 

 shafts and bores. 



The vertical section, PI. III., fig. 1, is a section of the 

 seam for the purpose of working which the Company are now 

 erecting a 20 -horse-power engine. 



