Coal- Seams of Van Diemen's Land. 135 



discovering any Coal : since then I have learnt they have 

 cut a seam of Coal in a bore-hole which was then being 

 executed. This bore is situated at the extreme N.W. corner 

 of the Company's property, and about 60 or CO yards from 

 the East bank of the Eiver Don. 



With the exception of, perhaps, over one or two acres in 

 this corner, I do not beheve any Coal will be found on the 

 lands occupied by the Company. 



In the shaft before mentioned the work was, fortunately 

 for the pockets of the Company, stopped by an enormous 

 influx of water, which the engine could not keep under. 



At the period of my visit they proposed erecting another 

 and more powerful engine : this I strongly persuaded them 

 against, as, on examining the debris of the rocks that had 

 been raised from the shaft, I found them to consist of the 

 fossiliferous limestone shales, which in Van Diemen's Land 

 as in New South Wales form the base of the carboniferous 

 system, and under which no Coal is likely to be discovered. 



About two to three miles nearly south of the above shaft 

 a bore-hole was being executed by the Company : it had 

 reached a depth of 102 feet, passing the whole distance 

 through grey arenaceous shales. 



This I also recommended them to abandon, as it was 

 almost directly on the strike of, and therefore in, the same 

 beds passed through in the shaft. 



The whole of the Company's land with the exception 

 above mentioned is, I believe, occupied by these fossiliferous 

 beds, with a few isolated and very thin patches of carbon- 

 iferous strata resting on them. 



Mr. Williams' works are situated near the south-west 

 corner of the Township of Tarleton, and consist of one shaft 

 270 feet deep. 



