Remarks on the Coals and Lignites of Victoria. 147 
floor. The eastern exposure, in Messrs. Stephenson’s selections, 
is in the head of a gully running into the northern tributary of the 
Narracan ; here the coal has been followed from its outcrop 
beneath its proper roof, and shows in the tunnel-face a thickness 
of from 30 to 32 inches of first-class coal, with only one thin in- 
significant clay parting ; it rests on a clay shale floor, and is 
covered by a thick sandstone roof. The dip is southerly at about 
10°, a direction and rate of inclination which carries the seam 
under the Narracan Valley, where other exposures of coal, as now 
being tested, are visible. One of these outcrops is in the bed of 
the creek iu the Narracan Valley Company’s ground, and, as far 
as traced, shows a thickness of about 20 inches of good coal, 
with indications of increase aB followed iu. This seam I consider 
to be the Moe seam, and it rises to the southward on the south 
side of the valley showing a synclinal “ roll ” in the measures. 
The seam, 30 inches thick, which was struck at 117 feet in a 
diamond-drill bore in the Narracan Valley, appears to underlie 
the Moe seam. 
On the Moe seam, in Mr. Stephenson’s selection, very satisfac- 
tory exploration has been effected by the Moe Coal Mining 
Company. From the outcrop, in a southerly direction for a 
distance of half-a-mile, bores were put down at short intervals, 
and, iu each case, proved the continuance of the seam, and the 
maintenance of its workable thickness and quality. A shaft was 
sunk near the southernmost bore, and struck the seam, which 
averaged 27 inches of good coal. An adit was then driven, and 
met the coal seam on its southerly dip, the shaft being utilized for 
ventilation. A level has since been extended for several hundred 
feet along the coal, which varies from 20 inches to 30 iuches in 
thickness, and is, so far, only slightly displaced by a few trifling 
faults, which will facilitate, rather than render difficult, the 
working of the seam. There will be at least half-a-mile up the 
incline of the seam, and probably 2 miles along its strike, to be 
worked from the adit without expenditure for windiug or pumping 
machinery. Taking an average of 2 feet of coal, this gives over 
2,000,000 tons available from the adit, and deliverable within a 
few hundred yards at the Narracan Valley Railway, whenever 
that lino bo constructed, and there is no reason to doubt that, 
small as is the thickness of the seam, compared with those of 
other coal-fields, the ease with which it cau bo mined and taken 
direct to the railway trucks will enable the company, when iu full 
work, to realize a fair profit over and above working expenses, 
royalty, and interest on outlay. 
The Narracan Valley Company will be able to mine by means 
of shafts the southern extension of the Moe seam ; and they have 
also several outcrops in their ground of other coal seams of good 
quality likely to attain workable dimensions when traced in from 
their exposures. 
