GEOLOGY OF THE GLOUCESTER DISTRICT, N.S.W. 251 



are exposed, with an aggregate thickness of at least 50 feet 

 of coal, and dipping South 30° W., at an angle of 57°. 



A shaft has been sunk near Gloucester on one of these 

 seams, near the bank of the Avon River, about one and a 

 quarter miles west of the railway line. This shaft has 

 penetrated a coal-seam 31 feet in thickness. This seam 

 contains several well marked bands of shale, ranging 

 individually up to 10 inches in thickness, and aggregating 

 4ir feet in thickness, there being 26J feet of clean coal. An 

 analysis of this coal, made in the Mines Department 

 Laboratory, was as follows: — 



Water 1'35 per cent. 



Volatile Hydrocarbons 33*92 „ 



Fixed Carbon ... '" ... 55*54 „ 



Ash 9*19 



Total 100*00 



Sulphur *754 



Water converted into steam by 1 lb of coal at 212° F., 



13*2 

 Specific gravity 1*307 

 Calories 7088 

 B.T.U. 12*964 



The sample from which this analysis was made is said to 

 have been taken across the full width of the seam, but 

 excluding the bands. Good thicknesses of clean coal occur 

 between the bands. The seam here strikes north and south 

 and dips west at an angle of 64°. On the western side of 

 the Gloucester River, however, the coal measures strike 

 north and south, and dip east at about the same angle. 

 From these dips, taken in conjunction with those in the 

 railway cuttings at Gloucester railway station, it would 

 appear that the coal seams, like the surrounding Carbon- 

 iferous strata, occur in the form of a plunging syncline. 



