— 179 — 
Theestimate of cost for such a plant, which would crush, wash, and 
briquette 300 tons of coal daily, as designed by the Humboldt Enginee- 
ring works of Kalk, Germany, is given in the appendix to this report. 
The Palermo Shales 
Above the Rio Bonito gray sandstones with their included coal beds 
shales, etc., there comes ina seriesof shales, and softer rocks, usualy 
ofa dull gray or often buffish gray color. They decompose readily into 
clays, and muddy sediments, so that the roads passing over them are 
difficult of maintenance. They crop along the Estrada do rio do Rasto 
between the 5th and 12th kilometers from Minas where they are fairly 
well exposed ina much weathered condition, and have a thickness of 
90 meters. They also cropon the Treviso road, leing exposed along 
the same between the village of Palermo, 8 kilometers west from Minas, 
and the outcrop of the overlying Iraty black shale, 2 kilometers 
beyond, and hence have been designated the Palermo shales. The 
thickness there is about 95 meters. 
Occasional reddish clays crop on the roads which pass over these 
beds, but whether the red color is sometimes due to weathering, rather 
than to the original color of the deposits in question is not certain, 
although the surface observations on tlese rocks in Rio Grande do Sul, 
as well as in Paranaé and Sao Paulo, where thin layers of purple, or 
maroon-colored shales, are frequently visible at short distance above 
the top of Rio Bonito beds, would tend to show that some of the beds 
are inherently red. Thisis also confirmed hy the results found in the 
borings already recorded from S. Paulo, Paranda, and Rio Grandedo Sul, 
in which these strata variegated with red occur at depths of 100 to 200 
meters below the surface, and hence far removed from the zone of 
weathering. These rocks are fairly well exposed in the railway cuts 
between S. Gabriel, Rio Grande do Sul, and 10 kilometers eastward 
at which latter point the base of the Zrafy black shale sets in along 
the ‘track. 
Although there is such a great change in lithology in passing from 
the Rio Bonito beds to those of the Palermo shales, there does not appear 
to be any evidence of unconformity, though the exact line of contact is 
seldom visible. 
The only fossils observed in the Palermo shales are fragments of 
fossil wood (Dadoxylon). ‘ 
