178 ON THE GEOLOGY AND PETROGRAPHY OP BATHURST, N.S.W. 



five and six-sided columns being of considerable length and well- 

 formed ; sometimes they are curved in a remarkable manner."* 



In the annual report of the geological surveyor in chargef , for 

 the year 1879 (p. 214), we find Mr. Wilkinson again making a 

 short reference to Bathurst as follows : — " Following the road 

 from Bathurst to Hill End the first eight miles is over granite, 

 then silurian schists to Wyagdon, then granite again for one mile 

 and a half to near Wattle Flat." 



The Department of Mines issued a volume in 1882, entitled 

 " Mineral Products of New South Wales." On p. 39 of this work, 

 Mr. Wilkinson says : — " Near Bathurst upper silurian rocks have 

 been considerably metamorphosed, the sandstones passing into 

 quartzites, slates into gneiss and hornblendic schists, and the coral- 

 line limestone into crystalline marbles in which nearly every trace 

 of fossils has been obliterated." 



Finally, Mr. W. J. Clunies Ross, B.Sc, read a paper, before the 

 Melbourne meeting of the Australian Association, on the Plutonic 

 and Metamorphic Rocks of Bathurst, New South Wales. Up to 

 the date of writing it has not appeared in print, so that I am 

 unable to refer to the paper in a more detailed manner. 



iv. General Geology. 



Taking a general view of the district round Bathurst, we have 

 presented to us a central mass of granite, forming the floor, and 

 partly the sides, of a great valley. Higher up the sides silurian 

 rocks rest on the granite. On the floor of this valley a great 

 sheet of recent alluvium shingle and clay deposit is spread, and 

 through these latter deposits the Macquarie has eroded its present 

 bed. A chain of basalt-capped hills rises prominently above the 

 granite floor, forming a line generally parallel to the present river. 



* Annual Report of the Department of Mines, New South Wales, for the 

 year 187S ; Sydney, the Government Printer, 187i>. 



t Annual Report of the Department of Mines, New South Wales, for the 

 vear 1S79 ; Sydney, the Government Printer, 18S0. 



