548 GEOLOCiY OF THE WESTEBN COALFIELDS, 



KOTES OX THE GrEOLOGT OF THE WeSTEEN CoaLFIELD, 



Part I. Capertee. 



By Professor Stephei^s, M.A. 



Crow^t Eidge forms the watershed between the Upper 

 Turon and the Capertee basin, running in a north-westerly- 

 direction. The Turon, whose headwaters are parted from those 

 of Piper's Flat Creek by a low ridge which represents the main 

 Continental Divide north of Mount Lambie, passes at a distance 

 of five or six miles to the S.W. This river and most of its 

 tributaries wind their sinuous course along deep gorges eroded 

 in steeply inclined Devonian Quartzites, Slates and Limestones, 

 associated occasionally with Granite. From these rocks they 

 derive their stores of alluvial gold. They have all, here and there, 

 little fertile flats at corners and junctions, and are fringed 

 throughout by River Oaks {Oasuarina suberosci) of very rich and 

 umbrageous foliage. They are all so exactly after the same 

 pattern, that many have come to be known under one name, 

 Oaky Creek. On the Turon we have Palmer's Oaky, Tobin's 

 Oaky, Big Oaky, Little Oaky, and Oaky peo' se from Hill End, 

 entered on the County Map. We may assume the existence of 

 a few more. Prom the latitude of Capertee Railway Station the 

 river turns nearly due west, passing Sofala to meet the Macquarie 

 near Tambaroora. 



On the other or seaward slope, we have the Capertee River, 

 which rises about 20 miles north of the Station. It is joined by 

 some more Oaky creeks, the name doubtless indicating that their 

 G-eological character is similar to that of their namesakes on the 

 "Western falls, and that at least the valleys are Devonian. This 

 is further suggested by the entry * Limestone Ridge ' upon the 

 map alongside one of these ' Oaky Creeks,' and near Vincents 

 Hole. I mention these conjecturally, as the country is coloured 

 for carboniferous in the G-eological Map, while I have not beeu 

 able to obtain more definite information about this portion of the 



