NEW SOUTH WALES. 261 



along the cliffs, forming black horizontal strata, separated by sand- 

 stone and clay shale, from twenty feet to forty feet in thickness. 

 They formerly quarried it from the cliff, but the greater part of the 

 coal is now obtained by mining. 



From the older coal-pit they have excavated an area of twenty-four 

 acres. The shafts are carried down about one hundred feet, to the 

 fifth or lowermost coal-seam, which is abcut sixty feet below the level 

 of the sea. The coal is at first taken out in small narrow areas, the 

 passages in which are but four feet high, leaving about as much 

 standing as is removed, the roof above being of fragile shale, and 

 requiring propping every three or four feet. The work is all per- 

 formed by convicts, who, after digging the coal out, take it in small 

 carriages on railways, which pass to the shaft, where it is raised by 

 steam-power. The lower bed only is considered sufficiently extensive 

 and pure to pay for its exploration, and is about three feet thick. 

 The coal is pure, except a layer of one and a half inches of bluish 

 sandstone. It is bituminous, and burns readily with abundance of 

 flame, somewhat like kennel coal. It is compact, though less so than 

 the best Pittsburg and Liverpool, and is of fair quality, although 

 sometimes impregnated with clay, which causes it to leave a large 

 quantity of ashes. 



Pyrites is occasionally disseminated in masses through it. Coal 

 abounds throughout the valley of the Hunter, appearing at the 

 surface in many places. 



The average quantity of coal produced is sixty tons a day, which 

 is piled up near the mouth of the pit, and thence sent to the pier on 

 a railway, where it is shipped to Sydney, Van Diemen's Land, and 

 even to the Cape of Good Hope. 



The new shaft in the valley is only sixty feet deep, the difference 

 of the two being in the height of the hill. 



Dr. Brook was formerly superintendent of this station, and gave a 

 droll account of the summary manner in which marriages were con- 

 cluded with the female convicts. If he saw a man who had just 

 come in from the country with a clean shirt on, he was sure he had 

 come for a wife, and the event always justified his surmise. The 

 man usually intimated his wish with a modest sheepish grin. The 

 fair frail candidates for matrimony were paraded for his inspection, 

 and if he found one whose looks pleased him, he put the plain ques- 

 tion at once, " Will you have me ?" He was seldom answered in the 

 negative, for marriage liberates the lady from the restraint she was 



vol. ii. 60 



