BY W. N. BENSON. 541 



hundred and eighty-two miles. Though small amounts of gold 

 and copper have been discovered in the neighbourhood, it has 

 never been in any way a mining centre, and its prosperity has 

 been due to its pastoral and agricultural industries. In this 

 respect, the district falls into three divisions : the hilly north- 

 eastern part, composed of granite and slaty rocks; the gently 

 undulating south-western part, chiefly made up of clayslates; 

 and the wide flood-plains of the Peel and Cockburn Rivers that 

 intersect the district. The first two of these divisions were 

 devoted to sheep- and cattle-raising, and to a small amount of 

 dairying, but now, much of the second division, and the flatter 

 portions of the first, are devoted to the cultivation of wheat. 

 The deep alluvium on the flood-plain produces abundant crops of 

 lucerne. 



The district first attracted the attention of geologists when 

 the Rev. W. B. Clarke passed through it in 1852, on his way to 

 investigate the gold-fields of Barraba and Hingara. He noted 

 the large masses of limestone on Moore Creek, to the north of 

 the district, and compared them with the Devonian limestones 

 in the Murrumbidgee valley(l). His collections of fossils were 

 described by Professor De Koninck of Liege(2), whose results, 

 first published in 1876-7(2), were translated into English, and 

 appeared as a Memoir of the Geological Survey of New South 

 Wales(3), He described five species of corals as coming from 

 Moara or Mowara Creek, north of Tam worth. A little doubt 

 has arisen as to the spot indicated by this name(ll), but there 

 seems no reason to think it other than what is now termed 

 Moore Creek. In his reports, Clarke rendered the original name 

 of the stream by the spelling "Moura" or "Mouara," and an old 

 map shows the name "Mooar." 



Very little geological work was done in the district for the 

 next forty years, though collections were made by Mr. D. A. 

 Porter, of Tamwortli, of the minerals and fossils of the district, 

 among which he found hyalite occurring with chromite at 

 Moonbi(4), and a new species of coral, described by Mr. R. 

 Ethei-idge, Jan., as Diphyphyllum porteri^ in the limestone in the 

 Tamworth Common(5). 



