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THE GEOLOGY AND PETROLOGY OF THE GREAT 

 SERPENTINE BELT OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



Part ii. The Geology of the Nundle District. 



By W. N. Benson, B.A., B.Sc. 



(Plates xxii.-xxiv.) 



The Nundle District lies near the head of the Peel River, the 

 chief township being 37 miles from Tamworth. Gold was dis- 

 covered here in 1852, and mining has been carried on fitfully 

 ever since. The district is divided diagonally by the Peel River, 

 to the east of which lie the high outposts of the New England 

 Plateau, with the lesser heights of the Peel River Buttress to 

 the west. Nundle lies in the hollow produced by down-faulting. 

 The smaller township of Bowling Alley Point is in the narrow 

 valley of the river, by which it leaves this sunken area, while the 

 rapidly growing, agricultural township of Woolomin lies on the 

 wide-spreading, alluvial flats at the junction of the Peel River 

 and Duncan's Creek. 



The amount of detailed work done here, previously, is very 

 small, the reports of ClarkeO), Odernheimer(5), Wilkinson(25), and 

 Jaquet(S) being the only important writings, and the two latter 

 are concerned chiefly with the Tertiary drifts. No systematic 

 survey has yet been attempted. The map given (Plate xxii.) 

 may, therefore, claim to be original in every detail. A pre- 

 liminary account of this area was read two years ago(15), but 

 subsequent work has called for some modification in the conclu- 

 sions then reached, and a much more detailed map is here pre- 

 sented. 



The Palaeozoic foundation rocks fall into three series, the 

 Woolomin Series, the Bowling Alley Series, and the Nundle 

 Series. The first occupies the eastern side of the area, and is 



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