On the Examination of Brown Cannel, or Petroleum, Coalseams at Colley Creek, Liverpool Plains, New South Wales

Already acquainted with the succession of deposits visible in the various natural sections on the line and in the vicinity of the Great North Road, so far as Aberdeen, I was desirous of working out the geological position of the Brown Cannel Coal (specimens of which had been sent to me from Liverpool Plains), so that I might be able to judge of the probability of success in any search for this coal in the district of the Lower Hunter. I therefore went to Colley Creek, the station of Mr. Loder, and this gentleman at once offered to accompany me and point out the places whence he had taken specimens identical in appearance with the Brown Cannel I had seen from Hartley. From an examination of the rocks, I was able to determine that the geological position of this Brown Cannel is below the coalseams worked in the Newcastle field—that, in fact, it forms the very base of our Coal-measures, and in such close contact with the porphyries that these latter are absolutely mixed up with the lower portion of the Cannel. I found two seams of workable thickness, tilted at a high angle, running north and south, not far from, and parallel to, each other, both of the same quality. I was the more desirous of determining the geological position of this coal, because a large piece from a block of Brown Cannel was given to me a short time ago, which had been brought up by the buckets