1841.] The Coal Localities. 145 



to this rock. The specimens, which I brought away will afford good 

 average pieces of coal and its immediate connected formations. 

 I took an early opportunity of availing myself of the kind offer of 

 Mr. Brown, the Marine Assistant to the Commissioner of the pro- 

 vince, and Col. Hervcy, to whose exertions this interesting dis- 

 covery 1 believe belongs, to visit the Cap Island and examine the 

 formation. I found it partaking, as might be expected, when the general 

 character of the line of coast is taken into consideration, of all the 

 characters which denote active volcanic agency, — The rock itself is in 

 great part make up of sand-stone, but so distorted are the strata by the 

 upheaving force, that in places they appear at an acute angle, and even ver- 

 tical, while they are so appositely placed as to convey the idea, that at 

 this point some confined force had here found an outlet, and split the 

 incumbent bed. The rock runs up to a peak. 



On one face of the rock a thick deposit of marly earth is seen, and on it 

 an abundance of vegetation thrives. At the seaward point of the rock, 

 and barely above high w T ater mark, the coal is found. The sand-stone 

 strata here, though not so highly distorted as in the more central part, 

 is still at an acute angle. It is intersected by a bed of fatty marl of about a 

 foot in thickness, and amidst its substance, and sometimes in a shaly depo- 

 sit, the lumps of coal are found. I say lumps for as yet no continuous seam 

 of coal has been discovered, but all is yet in its infancy, for, besides 

 scratching the surface soil for a few inches, nothing has been done to test 

 the extent of the formation. 



I confess, when I look at the position of the place, I see no immediate 

 prospect of a supply of coals ; and taking the difficulties of keeping out the 

 water into consideration, (even supposing that a continuous seam was 

 found) with the great dip of the strata, nothing but an outlay for machinery 

 could fairly test it. 



Leaving the Cap island, the next locality that I visited, was the point 

 of land on the island of Ramree, most contiguous to the Cap island. 

 From the direction of the outcropping coal strata at the Cap island, it 

 was inferred that similar indications might be found at the point of land 

 now adverted to, and a close search being made, a formation identical with 

 that at the Cap island was found with thin traces of coal. The dip 

 here is equally great with that at the Cap island, and would require a 

 shaft to be sunk, through the intervening sandstone stratum, to enable 

 the searcher to ascertain if a bed of coal of any consistence did exist. 

 "When I came away Captain Lumsden, the Principal Assistant, was 

 sinking two pits at a part of the island, some little way, perhaps half a 



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