No. 4. This was forwarded to the author by a friend, who found it on his farm, at the southern margin of the Stormberg, a few miles south of the outcrop of the coal there.
No. 5. This coal is from Mr. H. J. Baillie's best coal at Andries's Nek. Dr. Grey states that some lignite occurs with it, and that some of the coal near by is hard and anthracitic. The specimen was taken not far from the surface ; and Dr. Grey observes that this coal does not all burn very satisfactorily; but some of it gives out a moderate amount of heat, flaming for a limited time. Andries's Nek is about twenty-five miles north-east of Queenstown ; and its coal is supposed to be the same as that of the Stormberg.
The coal-seams show themselves mainly on the northern slopes of the Stormberg range, where they are thin and shaly, alternating with softish dark-coloured sandstones and purple marls. They are from 400 to 800 feet above the base of the mountains, and are exposed in the hills and ridges [of the flanks ?]. The coal is often pyritous ; and igneous dykes appear to have rendered much of it anthracitic. Graphite, with black shales, has been found in the north-western range of the Stormberg *.
Mr. Vice's Stormberg coal, got by a shaft, sells at a fair rate at the nearest villages. Considering the small population of the district, the distance of the Stormberg inland, cost of transport, and scarcity of labour, the Stormberg coal cannot be worked, largely as yet†.
B, No. 1. [Mr. Carruthers remarks that, although this has somewhat the look of Cyclostigma, it is a true Sigillaria, with a rootlet, and that its stigmata are smaller and more numerous than in any published forms. — T. R. J.]
The Lower-Albany coalfield is being explored by a Governmental Survey. The reports are rather encouraging ; but seams of really good coal do not yet (summer of 1870) appear to have been reached there. [In the micaceous shales of this series, collected by Mr. Neate at Port Alfred, Mr. Bristow, F.R.S., has detected Sigillaria, Stigmaria, Lepidostrobus, Halonia, and Selaginites, as reported by him to the Colonial Secretary in May 1870. — T. R. J.]
D, No. 2. This in particular was sent to the author from a spot where a large diamond was found. Dr. Grey visited the diamond-yielding districts of the Orange and the Vaal some years ago, and noticed the presence of primary crystalline rocks among the gravel and in the tufa of the alluvium. He now remarks that the conglomeratic alluvium is like that described as occurring in Brazil and other places where diamonds are found. He doubts the diamonds of the Vaal and Orange rivers having been derived from the Draakensberg.
is almost, if not quite, the only marine fossil known in the Karoo beds (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii. p. 143). — T. R. J.]
- [See also Dr. Rubidge's observations on these changes of the Karoo coal by
volcanic heat, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xii. p. 7. — T. R. J.]
† [Notes by Mr. Evans and Dr. Atherstone on the Stormberg Coal were published in the ' Mining Journal ' of January 14, 1871. — T. R. J.]
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