COAL PROSPECTING.

Southland Times, Issue 1544, 1 March 1872, Page 3

COAL PROSPECTING.

Sib, — I take upon myself to try to correct the writer of the letter signed "Black Diamond," which appeared in your issue of Tuesday last, with respect to the distinction between coals and lignites. All lignites are found in the tertiary formation, that is to say, sandstone will not be found overlying lignite. The coal that Capt. Hutton recommended to be developed was a brown coal of A 1 quality, with sandstone overlying it, and situated in a secondary formation — a country where lignite is not likely to be found. What " Black Diamond" means

when he speaks of " lignite or any other outcrop of coal when such mineral comes to be placed in juxtaposition with the coal at the Grrey," I cannot understand. Does he know that the Grey or Brunner is a surface outcrop coal, which has been pronounced to be the purest coal ever known ? His reference likewise to the Australasian latitudes puzzles me. What I do know is that the quality of coal may be known at the outi-rop, from its purity, from foreign matter not being intermixed with it, and from the rocks that overlie and underlie it. With respect to prospecting, I think we have evidence enough to prove that there is plenty of coal to work, if we work what we know of. There will soon be plenty of people to prospect other parts of the country — miners of the right sort. — Yours, &c, T. J. Thompson.