ai6 
Mines and Mineral Statistics. 
This is a section of the seam of eoal -worked by Messrs. 
J. & A. Brown, at their Dackenfield Colliery, six miles by rail 
from the mine to shoots erected alongside the Hunter Eiver, 
where vessels of large size are brought from Newcastle to be 
loaded with coal, a distance of about 12 miles. (See Gr on plan 
No. 1, and No. 6 on section lettered A, section No. 7.) The 
thickness of the seam is here about 10 feet 1 inch, but the upper 
part is so full of bands that they only work 5 feet G inches. It 
IS a free-burning bituminous coal — specific gravity from 1‘23 to 
1*29— suitable for household, steam, smelting, gas, coking, and 
blacksmith purposes. This property consists of 2,7G7 acres, 
and the same seam of eoal was formerly worked by Messrs. J. 
and A. Brown, a short distance south-east of the present 
workings. 
The coal is worked from an adit driven into the hill-side by 
which it was first brought to the day in the latter part of 1874. 
The quantity of coal raised in 1S74 was 3,821 tons, valued at 
£2,594 4s., and the average number of miners, labourers, and 
boys employed daily when at work in 1874 was forty-four miners, 
forty-three labourers, and thirteen mechanics, and they are 
employing a very much greater number this year. They have 
two locomotives and three stationary engines of' six, twenty, and 
forty horse-power. 
Alex. Brown, Esq., is the Manager. 
The above sections represent one and the same seam of coal, 
and the following fossil fiora is found in the rocks and shales 
lying above and below it, viz. : — Sphenophyllum, Vertebraria, 
Clasteria, Gangamopteris, Sphenopteris, Pecopteris, Noeggerathia, 
Glossopteris, Phyllotheca, Anarthrocanna, witli Coniferous ti^ees 
and seed-vessels of Conifers, and fluted stems very like Calamites 
— with other plants not yet determined by any palaeontologist. 
And the Bev. W. B. Clarke, M.A., E.G.S , &c., informs me that 
a paleozoic fish, “tJrosthenes Australis,” was found in one of 
the Australian Agncultural Company’s pits, in a bed of grey 
grit lying a short distance over the coal now worked in this 
neighbourhood. 
