590 



GREAT SERPENTINE BELT OF NEW SOUTH WALES, 11., 



tion can be given. Perhaps it has been disturbed by the fault that 

 separated Red Hill from Mount Sheba. Moreover, the gravels lie 

 on granite. As might be expected, there is a very large amount of 

 decomposition always taking place in the rocks on which the 

 gravels lie, and the non-removal of such decomposed material leads 

 to peculiar appearances. Granite is peculiarly unstable ("la 

 maladie du granite"), and the result here is very remarkable. 



Between here and Nundle Creek is a run of granite and shale, 

 overlain here and there with basalt; but the country was so con- 

 fused, and the trees so thick, that about a mile of it has been left 

 unmapped. A very wide area of hard gravel occurs east of Nundle 

 Creek, while a few yards of gravel and a little basalt occur about 

 half a mile to the north of that. 



*aert*jgfiM 



True Scale 



Ironstone 

 Conglomerate 

 Sondj Cenc* 



•Sandstone 



X'tf ine. ConalomerQN* 

 FerryqlrtOw-* -'•Sands rone 

 Coarse C*l*<£ o w» e ro Y e 



4W 



3000 

 2900 



f-asoo 



9700 



r-2600 



Fig. 5. 



Yellow Rock Hill is the thickest mass of gravel in the district, 

 being 340 feet thick at the northern end. Fig. 5 is a true scale 

 section of this face. It thins out to about 40 feet only, and though 

 the west base of the gravel is 140 feet higher than the eastern ; the 

 western base of the overlying basalt is lower than the east. The 

 gravel contains reef -quartz, red jasper, and Bowling Alley breccia 

 together with silicified wood. Soft, current-bedded bands of argil- 

 laceous sandstone are intercalated, but rarely. 



Indications of continuances of this lead to the south, up Nundle 

 Creek, and to the south-west across the Peel River, have been noted, 

 but not investigated. The latter was probably the main-stream 

 line. Wilkinson says it may be traced west in the direction of 

 Quirindi(25). 



