KYEBURN.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 55, 18 February 1870, Page 3

KYEBURN.

(From our own Correspondent.) No. 111. " Hetournous'a nos mo'utons. I took leave of y.our readers at the tip head, begrimed/ with coal and pipeclay, and " promising my next ■with an accurate description of the coal workings. I will now endeavor 1 in as' few words as possible to give your readers an intelligible account of one of tlje greatest boons jvith which Eror; vidence or nature has blessed this district. The,- coal:, f ;seams : siarp situated,, about a quarter of a mile above the Post Offier, on the western bank of the : creek, and'<at'jan■ elevation>of about 200 ; feet above the water level. The seams, ; which consist' of severar,handa, broken • : and- irregular'; r li^al s an u an|fe of 45 deg., , but the dip is - not constant. , p Several • dykes occur, \vhich suddenly disjoint the stratification. This considerably inthe- labor attached to,' working the veins. At; such places-the.'earth has evidently been broken from the surface downwards, one portion having sunk down while the adjoiniiig part has preserved its original situation. I will here explain how these breakages must have originated, although, 1 should, strictly speaking, reserve this for my letter on the- geological, formation, and the mining interest. It is understood, at the present day,, that pit coal is of vegetable origin; and, to put the matter in an intelligible form, I may state that it is nothing but timber drifted into its present position, and thencovered with successive layers of clay-; sand, gravel and such detritus as is washed down from the adjoining mountains. Allowing then that the coal or s timber would be laid down in a horizontal layer, or at any rate follow the undulations of the substrata, there would be one unbroken vein of coal left ex posed to the view, unless some violent commotion of the earth's surface had displaced it. There are two forces which cause this disjointing, viz., an earthquake or a land slip. As the coal overlies a solid sandstone rock I may safely infer that.it never received its present pitch from a ..landslip, but must come to the conclusion that it has' been upheaved withthe adjoining strata. . The breakages have, iri • my opinion, been caused by landslips; and, as the 1 waters,of this once .inland sea receded, and the fdrainage cut itself. deep chan-

through the alluvial deposits, these deposits, losing "their support, have "een constantly slipping and breaking a w"ay in huge masses. I will now shift my premises from the theoretical to the practical, and describe what I have seen: There are two separate parties working the same seams, M'C ready and Brown and Mr. James .Robinson. As the tip head, which cost Ime so much climbing belongs to Messrs. M-Cready, and Brown, I will first describe their workings, and, as the saying is,facilis descensus averni, I shall find my level below with Mi-. Robinson' when I have. accomplished my task above.

lam standing at the tip; head and as soon as I turn my back upon the rural picture which I endeavored to descibe in my last a most melancholy prospect meets my gaze. Di rectly iri front is a,vast chasm, in the hill, the bottom of which is occupied by a tramway. . Two stalwart men are pushing a loaded truck, before them, arid when they arrive at the tip head the truck takes a : somersault, and they greet, me with al hearty " Good morning-." My first inquiry is, what are they removing all this pipeclay for ? The answer I receive is that; \a landslip has occurred, and that they are endeavoring to bring ,the coal to' light again. : I am, however, informed that this is not the only standbye they have, and Mr. M'Cready .kindly volunteers to show me the way into the tunnel, : whence coal is always procurable: -The entrance into this tunnel by no means inspires confidence, j The casing of the coal is composed of clay slate, by no means indurated, and ! large masses of this frequently fall in, j and are built up as asort of warning to the yentursome. As soon as 1 enter • the tunnel I find, to : my great satisfaction, that everything is comparatively I secure, and that timber props have not been spared. I grope my way in utter darkness behind my guide, occasionally receiving a concussion on the brain from a diagonal stay, until I reach the end of the drive, and there a faint glimmer irorn a tallow dip indistinctly shadows forth a human being. The human being turns out to be an old acand rejoices in the soubriquet of V Coalpit Jack." - I found that an enormous amount of work had been done in this pit, and that obtaining the coal is by no means an easy task. . The main seam is removed bodily, from the cap downwards, as ; far the ground will allow, and a face is now opened out to ' a depth of between 50 and 60 feet. When I explain that the seams lie at an angle of bent strata have to be. carted away, it Nyill.be easily understood, what an immense amount of manual labor is requ r dto keep tliis great, chasm clear. This seam has: been opened out at both ends,, that is at each side -of the- spur through which it runs. - The western side-remains for the present unworked l , owing to its unsafe state. The late rains, got the.whole hill on the move The tramway was'partially covered up, • and the coal totally so. I iieed not describe the different descriptions of coal to be obtained here, as your Hogburn readers are sufficiently well acquainted with that matter already. ... 111 Mr. Bobinson's pit, which is below the one. alluded to above, I was shown a magnificent block of coal, and not to surpassed by anything that I have seen ill the Province. There is, :hp\ye^er, : great difficulty in working at " this depth, and Mr. Kobinson has made use of the sluicing process to get rid of a considerable amount of the overlYm o, clay. The road, which' was always a steep one', caved in during the last . 'flood, arid the coal has now to be drawn to the foot of the hill on a sledge. Space . will not allow me to" say more at present, but I may again "allude to them when 1 write you on mining matters.