145 



In general appearance and composition, the Moorlands 

 lignite is very similar to the better known Victorian occur- 

 rences — for example, that of Morwell. The latter, however, 

 is freer from ash than any of the South Australian so far 

 examined. 



No fossil remains other than plants have yet been 

 detected in the lignite and associated clays of Division ^ 

 in the Moorlands section. The plant remains in the lignite 

 itself are singularly well preserved, often retaining the woody 

 structures so as to be clearly distinguishable in the hand 

 specimen . 



The coal cuts like cheese and, consequently, is easily 

 excavated. In the seam, or when freshly mined, it is of a 

 black or deep chocolate-brown colour, but exposure to the 

 air at the surface soon causes it to dry out, accompanied by 

 contraction which develops shrinkage cracks, eventually lead- 

 ing to a crumbling of the mass. As drying proceeds the 

 general colour becomes lighter until it is literally a "brown 

 coal." 



The remains of small trees, sticks, and reeds are clearly 

 distinguishable as blacker lignite embedded in a browner base. 

 The latter is observed to be constituted principally of the 

 remains of leaves and small twigs. Some of these leaves are 

 very fresh and tough, so that they may be picked out in 

 large pieces or even entire. They are so thin and translucent 

 as to be capable of mounting on glass slips as transparencies. 

 Selected examples, thus mounted, have been submitted to an 

 authority on Tertiary floras, Mr. Henry Deane, M.A., F.L.S., 

 who comments upon them as follow : — "Broader-toothed leaves 

 evidently Proteaceous, but not 'Banksia.' Venation resembles 

 more nearly that of a short leaf among my specimens of 

 Telopea speciosissima . Specimens of Lomatia Fraseri and 

 L. ilici folia have been compared, but in these the dentation 

 of the margin is invariably too strong. The small narrow 

 leaf bears a strong resemblance to some leaves with entire 

 margins of Banksia marginata.'' 



Embedded at random in the leafy base are particles of 

 two varieties of resin. The more abundant is very dark 

 coloured, practically black. It occurs characteristically in 

 large, elongated, tear-like drops, usually about 1 cm. in 

 diameter, but often considerably larger. In its general 

 appearance and occurrence it is akin to certain of the grass 

 tree gums of to-day, but darker in colour, which, however, 

 is a feature which would be expected to develop with age. 



In considerably less quantity and in smaller particles 

 of an irregular shape, usually about one-third of a centimetre 



