Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/36

26 The side of the mountains being exposed for a considerable extent, we observed a horizontal vein of coal, the greatest thickness of which did not exceed four inches. We noticed it for the space of more than three hundred yards. The stratum beneath it was sand stone; that above, a dark brown schist. From these indications I presume, that excellent coal may be found in abundance at a greater depth. It is well known, that the richest mines of this fuel are commonly found beneath sandstone.

The rust, with which I perceived the water, that trickled from the rocks, highly coloured, was the first indication these mountains afforded me of their containing iron; but it was not long before I found fine fragments of hematites of a bronze red colour, and farther on an ochry earth of a tolerably bright red. Small separate fragments of tripoli also were scattered about in the way we took; probably separated from the higher strata, which we could not distinguish, as they were covered by the earth that tumbled down in large masses.

Several new species of lobelia grew out from the clefts of the rocks, which became more and more steep. Some of them were perpendicular cliffs, more than two hundred yards in height above the level of the sea. Very recent marks of the