30 Coal Seams near Stony Creek. 



hills at intervals from Port Stephen's Heads to the 151st 

 meridian. 



Near the junction of the William's River with the Hunter 

 (where porphyry enters largely into the formation of the 

 pebbles in the fossiliferous conglomerate of Muree), and 

 along the Myall the dip is south-easterly, at about the same 

 angle, 16°, as at Stony Creek coal-pits. Eastward of the 

 Buttai Range, and so to Newcastle, the coal basin of the 

 latter locality occupies the country, seams cropping out at 

 intervals as far as Waburg Head and Tuggerah, in the coast 

 cliffs. 



It will be seen from the above topographical account, that 

 about Maitland, the Four-mile Creek, and Greenhill, coal 

 seams of the Newcastle basin are separated from the Stony 

 Creek coal by the 'Palaeozoic fossiliferous beds, that ascend 

 from the sea level at Maitland to the height of nearly 400 ft. 

 in the line of section No. 2. 



The - consideration of all these facts will show the im- 

 portance of that section. But, although for nearly twenty 

 years I have been working out the details of the country in 

 question, and have long been acquainted with all the local 

 phenomena, I have not had so valuable a comment on them 

 as has been afforded by the railway cuttings and the coal- 

 pits near Stony Creek. 



The section (No. 2) shows a depression above the coal. 

 This represents a small gully excavated by atmospheric 

 waters in. the outcrop of the softer beds. The proprietor 

 (the Hon. Bowen Russell, M.L.C.), having given directions 

 to form a garden in that hollow, found traces of coal, and 

 very judiciously put down a shaft to the dip of the outcrop 

 so accidentally discovered. He has since made a second 

 shaft a little to the S.E. of the former, but owing to water it 

 is not now wrought. The beds passed through in the new 

 pit (Pit B), above those with which Pit A begins, are repre- 

 sented in section No. 2 in the stratigraphical order, and the 

 continuation of that pit is carried on past the beds in which 

 Pit B ends. As the beds were the same in each below 

 Bed 4, this is the most convenient mode of representing the 

 series. At the time of my last visit, I found experimentally 

 that there was 40 feet of water in Pit B. Water became 

 very troublesome at the fifth bed of that pit. 



There seems to be some occasional irregularity in the 

 beds ; but the dip given in the section is the mean dip from 

 16° to 20°. The size of the shaft is 10 ft. 6 in. in diameter. 



