COAL-FIELDS OF SOUTH AFRICA. 669 
Hard Sandstone (about 20 feet thick), 
(Gr Coal. 
4 Shale. 
8F Coal. 
4 Shale. 
4 Coal. 
6 Shale. 
1 Coal. 
6 Shale. 
163 Coal. 
Fire-clay (about 5 feet). 
Coal 3 ft. 14 in. 
(The beds dip to north-east at about 1°.) 
The one-inch seam, being poor, is not used; but without this 
the aggregate thickness of good coal exceeds 3 feet. It is hard. 
bright, and bituminous, and yields about 23 per cent. of ash. The 
bottom layer is the best, about 7 inches of it being picked out for 
smiths’ work, and equal, it is said, to any imported coal. There 
is much iron-ore on the surface here, and Mr. D. W. Jones, the 
manager for the Cyfergat Company, says in his ‘ Report to the 
Directors, dated 30th June, 18835 :—‘“In sinking a well on the flat 
below the cottages I discovered a seam of hematitic iron-ore, con- 
taining 50 per cent. of metal.” 
Molteno.— About 3 miles north-west of Cyfergat, and at about 
200 feet lower level, are the mines of the Great Stormberg Coal- 
mining Company, upon the farm ‘ Paarde-Kraal” and the town- 
commonage of Molteno. A drive into the side of the Molteno 
hill shows :— ' 
im. ima. 
Hard Sandstone. 
8 Coal. 
4 Shale. 
6 Coal. 
: 6 Shale. 
14 Coal. 
Sandstone. 
Coal 2 ft. 4 in. 
(Beds horizontal, or nearly so.) 
The Molteno coal yields, it is said, 38 per cent. of ash, and is 
very hard, but answers well for steam purposes; that from Paarde- 
Kraal is more like the Cyfergat coal in quality. 
Coal crops out on several other farms in the Bamboes Berg, in 
3- to 4-foot seams, similar to that from Molteno or Cyfergat. On 
one farm, called “ Uitkyk,” east of Cyfergat, there is a hill 600 feet 
feet higher than the mines, on which occurs an outlier of coal 
3 feet thick, under sandstone, and about 2 acres in extent. 
This hill overlooks a deep ‘“ kloof” or gorge, opening to the east 
and about 1800 feet in depth; part way down, perhaps 200 feet, 
some seams of coal crop out, which may be the same as those 
