Geology of Kerguelen $ Land. 29 
and much silicified, was dug out of the soil below. 
About 400 feet from the summit is a bed of shale nearly 
horizontal, and averaging six feet in thickness ; but in 
some places it is exposed to a much greater extent. No 
remains of leaves were found in it, although the wood 
occurs in the adjacent basalt. 
The “ Arched Rock” at the entrance to the harbour 
terminates this ridge to the southward ; it is about 150 
feet high, the base of the arch 100 feet across, and the 
basalt, of which it is composed, of the same kind. 
Several fragments of wood, much twisted, softer, and 
having a more recent appearance than the hard silicified 
kind first found, occur inclosed in the basalt, on the 
inside of the arch. 
In the small bay inside of “ Arched Point,” a bed of 
coal, 4 feet thick and 40 in length, appears above the 
debris, 30 feet higher than the level of the sea, and 
covered by basalt, which rises about 500 feet above it. 
The coal is slaty, of a brownish-black colour, the frac¬ 
ture like wood-coal ; and the bed takes a northerly 
direction. 
On the north side of the harbour, near the centre of 
the small bay formed by Cape Francois, a thin vein of 
the coal, not more than two or three inches in thickness, 
again makes its appearance in a cave excavated in the 
shale. The coal is covered by a kind of slag, and 
underlies the shale, above which the basalt rises to about 
the same height as on the south side of the harbour. 
The cave is 30 feet wide at the entrance, 20 feet deep, 
and 12 in height. 
From the centre of the terraced ridge forming Cape 
Francois rises a conical hill; its crater-shaped summit 
being 1200 feet above the level of the sea. 
A shallow lake (covered with ice at the time), 30 yards 
