132 
Mines and Mineral Statistics. 
world, we may expect that the oil shales will he of as great import- 
ance in their development ; and if we do not find oil springs, we 
may possess such beds of the solid material as will justify the 
expenditure of all the capital needful to keep up a steady and 
unfailing supply of the valuable Jind varied products which these 
shales and coals will yield. 
“The works already in activity at Hartley and America 
Creek, and others preparing to operate in different localities, with 
the general approval of the quality of the oil produced, will 
justify our most sanguine anticipations on this subject.” 
A description of the collieries now working, and of the differ- 
ent A'arieties of coal raised, will be found in the last Annual 
Eeport of Mr. J. Mackenzie, E.G.S., Examiner of Coal Fields. 
In the Bowenfels district there is an upper coal seam from 17 
to 23 feet thick, but on account of the numerous clay bands it 
contains it is of less value than the lower 10-feet scam. 
Lower Coal Measures. 
The collection of fossils from near West Maitland, Greta, and 
Anvil Creek, includes Spirifera>, Conularia?, luocerami, Productsc, 
Fenestellfc, Bellerophon, Criuoidal stems, Ac., obtained from the 
upper marine beds 350 feet above the Anvil Creek coal seam, 
from which seam I collected the specimens now shown, containing 
the Pliyllotheca and Glossopteris Browniana. Immediatel}^ below 
this coal are the lower marine beds, represented by the speci- 
mens of Spirifera?, Conularuo, Bellerophon, Paehj^domus, Ortho- 
ceras, Euomphalus, EenestclLu, a new species of Starfish, Cha;tetes 
radians, Ac., from Stony Creek, Harper's Hill, Bavensfield and 
Singleton. This suite of fossils is specially interesting, as show- 
ing not only the range through the coal series of the Glossopteris 
and Phyllotheea, plants so abundant in the upper coal measures 
of AVollongoug, Lithgow A^alley, and Newcastle ; hut also, the 
association of those plants with the marine fauna of the lower 
coal measures ; thus affording evidence agreeing with that of 
the previously mentioned fishes, as to the Tipper Palscozoic age of 
the New South Wales coal measures. 
The collection of Productie, S|nrifcrir, Euomphali (?), Coiiularim, 
Ac., from the Bowenfels and Wallerawang District was obtained 
from coarse pebble conglomerate beds, ahont 100 feet below the 
ten feet coal seam of LithgoAV A^alley. These marine beds are 
conformable to the overlying plant bods of the upper coal 
measures, but rest uneonformably on the upturned edges of 
Devonian strata. 
Below the lower marine beds of the Hunter District are beds 
of shales and sandstones, with several species of Cyclopteris, 
Knorria, Sigilaria, Stigmaria, Lepidodendron, Ac., (see specimens 
exhibited). They occur near to, and probably in association with. 
