

On the Brown Cannel Coal-seams at Colley Creek, 481 



was known to be transgressive over the underlying Thanet Beds, and 

 it was shown that the Oldhaven Beds were transgressive over both, 

 so that outliers of the last might rest at once on the Chalk ; and 

 from this the author thought that, in the absence of good palseon- 

 tological evidence, the occurrence of the isolated patches of sand on 

 the North Downs, which Mr. Prestwich had classed with the Crag, 

 might be explained by the geological structure of the older Ter- 

 tiaries, although he did not attempt to say that they belonged to 

 that series : should a more decided opinion be given on their fossils, 

 he was quite willing to take Mr. Prestwich's view. 



April 11. — Warington W. Smyth, Esq., President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. "On the Brown Cannel or Petroleum Coal-seams at Colley 

 Creek, New South Wales." By William Keene, Esq., F.G.S. 



In this paper the author described the geological position of the 

 Brown Cannel or Petroleum- coal of Colley Creek, Liverpool Plains. 

 From an examination of the rocks, he stated that he had been able 

 to determine that this Cannel is below the Coal-seams worked in 

 the Newcastle coal-field. It appeared to form the very base of the 

 Coal-measures, and to be in such close contact with the Porphyries, 

 that these latter seemed mixed up with the lower portion of the 

 Cannel Coal. There are two parallel seams of workable thickness, 

 which are tilted at a high angle, and run north and south. In ap- 

 pearance the specimens are identical with the Brown Cannels from 

 Hartley, and are but little different from the Boghead coal of 

 Scotland. 



At Scone, near the Kingdon Ponds, a section was noticed in 

 which the marine fossiliferous bed is proved to overlie the coal- 

 seams, affording, as the author remarks, conclusive testimony as to 

 the high antiquity of the Coal-beds. 



2. " On the Occurrence and Geological Position of Oil-bearing 

 Deposits in New South Wales." By the Rev. W. B. Clarke, M.A. 

 F.G.S. 



The author first described the oil-producing schists and cannels 

 of New South Wales as they exist at Colley Creek, at the head of 

 the Cordeaux river (Illawarra shales), at various places in the Wol- 

 londilly and Nattai valleys, at Reedy Creek (Hartley Cannel), 

 Stony Creek, and elsewhere ; as well as a substance resembling 

 " Bog-butter," occurring at Bournda, and probably of very recent 

 date. Respecting the Colley Creek Cannel described in the pre- 

 vious paper, Mr. Clarke observed that he saw no porphyry near it, 

 but that a seam or mass of the Cannel, which here contains nume- 

 rous scarcely rounded grains of quartz, was passed through in the 

 midst of a series of layers of black, partly unctuous clay, which also 

 contained many similar quartz-grains ; these grains gave to the clay 

 a porphyritic aspect, so that by sight alone one might be led to 

 consider them a decomposed porphyry. The chief conclusions at 

 which the author arrived were, (1) that, with the exception of the 

 Stony Creek Cannel, all the oil-producing deposits occur in the 

 Upper Coal-measures, and that the Cannel of Stony Creek, on the 



