Mount St. Nicholas,
celebrated for a very thick seam of coal and three or four smaller ones which make their appearance on the side of the range 500 feet above the valley. The large seam is 16 feet in thickness, but the coal, although bituminous, is of a quality that renders it unfit for steam, or gas making purposes. For one or two inches of good bright coal, there are on the average from 12 to 15 inches of inferior earthy matter—in fine bituminized clay. On the opposite side of the valley this seam again appears at the same altitude at Mt. Legion 4 or 5 miles away, and again at the back of Fingal. There is a bullock dray road to the big seam, which is surrounded by some very romantic bits of scenery. For 500 feet above the upper seam of coal, volcanic rock obtains, which on the summit of the hill rises in very fine columns, a characteristic of the greenstone of the same age in Tasmania. The beds of clay above and below the coal furnish very fine specimens of fossil ferns conspicuous among which, are the tongue-fern Glossopteris, the wedge-fern Sphenopteris, the nerve-fern Neuropteris and the tooth-fern Odontopteris. All of which are long since extinct it is believed.
That mansion just discernible through the poplar and other acclimatised trees on the right hand of the visitor, is Killymoon, the largest and most imposing structure in the district, and is the residence of S. Ransome, Esq. Its founder, the late Mr. Steiglitz, was evidently a man of good architectural taste, and in it one is strongly reminded of much that characterises the structures of medieval times. The freestone of which it is built was quarried close by, and is associated with the coal seams. It possesses the remarkable property of resisting, to a great degree, the action of fire, and in this respect much resembles itacolumite sandstone, which is employed for the floor of furnaces occasionally in Europe. When it is closely examined it is found to consist of small, well rounded grains of quartz, bound together by an argillo-siliceous cement.
The visitor is now passing through Cullenswood, by which name this part of the Break o’ Day valley is known. A few cottages, and cultivated fields, with a church and its resting place for the dead, are its chief features. Two miles further on it merges into St. Mary’s. This village boasts one inn, one general store, and a smithy. The inn is situated on the brink of a clear, cool mountain stream which is never failing. St. Patrick’s Head, with its perfect pyramid form, rises grandly in front, while another conspicuous, though less aspiring hill, the Black Elephant, forms the eastern boundary of the vale. Horses are changed at the inn and soon the traveller is being hurled merrily along through an avenue of fine old wattle trees, whose branches meet over-head, and if it be Spring time the perfume from their golden blossoms is intoxicating. He must now be prepared to witness in a very few minutes, one of the grandest sights in natural scenery of the Southern hemisphere. There are few persons who have resided long enough in these colonies to become acclimatised that have not heard of