470 NEW SOUTH WALES. 
at Glendon, Patrick’s Plains, Ravensworth, and as far northwest as 
Puenbuen, and the vicinity of Mount Wingan. Ten miles south of 
Newcastle, near Lake Macquarie, the coal has also been opened. 
This region, which may be called the Hunter River Coal District, is 
upwards of one hundred and twenty miles long, and varies in width 
from six to twenty miles on either side of the river; and farther ex- 
ploration will probably extend these limits. Although we thus name 
this region, the coal throughout it is generally covered with the 
upper sandstone, and outcrops only at intervals. It is quite possible 
that coal may be found in most parts of the district by boring; and 
the scarcity to the southward may be owing to the thickness of sand- 
stone which covers it. 
A second coal region extends through the greater part of the district 
of Illawarra. Coal is first seen at the northern extremity of the dis- 
trict in the low cliffs at the base of the main mountain range, and 
near where this range commences to diverge from the coast. From 
this place (called Bulli) the coal formation may be traced through the 
district to the southward, following along the base of the mountain, 
as shown in the map of the district. 
Beside these two districts, the Hunter River and Illawarra, I am not 
informed of any other beds opened in Eastern Australia. Mr. Darwin 
met with coal fossils, (the Glossopteris Browniana,) at Wolgan at the 
foot of the Blue range; and the formation, according to the Rev. W. 
B. Clarke, outcrops in other places. Coal has been described as 
abundant in some parts of South Australia, and in Van Diemen’s 
Land. 
Stratification and Characters of the Beds.—The cliffs of Newcastle 
exhibit a much fuller development of the coal series than those of 
Illawarra, and it will be most instructive to stuay, first the details of 
stratification at the former place. 
NewcastLe Coat Districr.—The village of Newcastle lies to the 
south of the Hunter, just back of a small promontory forming the 
southern cape at the mouth of this river. A hill, a hundred feet in 
height, rounded above and with a bluff face to the sea, occupies the pro- 
montory; and to the southward on the coast there are other cliffs alter- 
nating with short sand-beaches, which are successively of greater ele- 
vation, and in the course of half a mile become two hundred feet high. 
Near the middle of the river’s mouth stands the small islet, Nobby, 
facing the ocean on the east and southeast with an erect front of bare 
rock, and sloping rapidly in the opposite direction. Nobby, and Tele- 
