Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 33.djvu/623

Rh worked by the Turkish Government until five or six years before my visit, although Croat squatters worked at some of the best-developed and most easily worked seams near the coast, for some years previous to this time.

The following are the names of localities near to Kosloo where coal was known by Mr. Barkley to exist, with a description of its quality:—

Okoosnu, five miles from Kosloo. Several seams exist near the summit of the mountains, at two and a half miles from the coast, quality both good and bad, and are being worked by Croats.

Yani Arman. Coal obtained from the hills by Croats, but the quality indifferent.

Doomooz Dereh. Contains a seam of coal 8 feet thick and of good quality, but deteriorating rapidly by exposure. Was being worked by Mr. Barkley.

Zungledek, Has seven or eight workable seams of varying quality, and all lying at various inclinations. Once worked by Croat squatters, but now abandoned by them, from the difficulties encountered in consequence of being so disturbed, and of their want of capital to meet these difficulties.

Baluk and Uzulmas. The coal in this valley is similar to that in the Zungledek. One seam exists at two miles from the sea, which is 12 feet thick and of good quality. The coal at Uzulmas is nine miles from the coast.

Feeling it necessary, or rather desirable, to see something of the coal-bearing deposits in the neighbourhood, I started on the morning of March 30th with Mr. Barkley to ride across the intervening district between Kosloo and Erekli, where I ordered my ship to meet me, the distance being nearly thirty miles.

A short delay occurred in the time of starting, in consequence of an explosion of gas in one of the mines, on the miners first entering it soon after daylight, by which three native miners were rather severely burnt, one poor fellow especially so, in the face and neck. This was only the second instance of the kind that had occurred since Mr. Barkley had been in charge of the mine.

In reference to the geology of the district crossed in our ride to Erekli, I feel that, from the distance of time since it occurred, I can simply give a few extracts from my private journal, without attempting to enlarge or enter into details. Deep drifts of snow lay on some parts of the route, where the road ascended over the higher parts of the ridges crossed, and thus hid some of the beds and associated shales &c. from view and examination.

After ascending for half an hour the western ridge bounding the Kosloo valley, where a mass of limestone decidedly overlies the coal-bearing deposits, we reached and followed the backbone of a ridge nearly 2000 feet above the sea, where the shales and schists composing it appeared to be but little inclined from the horizontal position, but whether conformable or not with the former or latter could not be determined; and after crossing two valleys, with a