1§6 
The coal (e), at 309 feet Gi inches, was the only seam of workable tluckness an 
quality met with in the bore. The thickness of the seam, as reported hy Mr. Hester, i 
5 feet inches ; hut this was only represented hy about 1 lb. of fragments, it havi ^ 
been found impossible to extract a core. The following is an analysis of this seam: 
Per cent. 
. . 115 
Moisture 
Volatile hydrocarbons 
Fixed carbon 61 57 
Ash 17-03 
100-00 
Specific gravity, 1-56. 
The coal swells a little on ignition, but falls away to a vvhite ash without stirring. 
The powder is black. The coke swells a good deal, but is bright and firm. T e seam 
would make a fair furnace coal, although the quantity of ash is certainly hig . 
In the bore, as in natural sections, the white trap graduates, as it recedes 
from the carbonaceous strata, into dolerite, although in natural sections it mig o 
taken for a weathered acidic igneous rock. The junctions of the white trap an coa 
seen in the cores are most interesting and instructive. It would appear m so™® 
as if the coal had intruded into the white trap rather than the converse. The sample 
drawn in PI. 51, fig. 1, shows this deceptive appearance very well. In PL ’ 
threads of coal penetrate the white trap like veins. In PI. 51, fig. 3, the white trap 
occurs in irregular masses throughout the coal, these irregular masses^ being pro baoiy 
connected in the interior of the core, although they appear isolated m section, 
molten rock appears to have, so to speak, eaten its way into the coal-seam and ultimate y 
consolidated, while unconsumed fragments and films of the coal remaine mvo ve 
its mass. The conversion of dolerite into white trap where it comes in con a 
with carbonaceous rocks has frequently been noted in the coalfields of Scotland an 
elsewhere. 
J. 
