BY PROFESSOR STEPHENS. 521 



The basin of the former is carboniferous — that of the latter 

 Devonian, Silurian, or older. Along the boundary runs the OBX, 

 having on its left the rocks of vertical, on its right bank those of 

 horizontal stratification. If we examine the sections displayed upon 

 the right, we shall observe at the basis a conglomerate of small 

 pebbles, over which lies a felspathic looking sandstone. Above 

 this again is seen a bed composed mainly of petrified trees, 

 apparently coniferous, and highly charged with oxide of iron, 

 Above foJlow shales and sandstones, in which seams of Coal are 

 known to occur. Coal indeed is everywhere indicated in these 

 horizontal beds, and many seams have been proved, as at Rocky 

 Mouth, but as yet without very satisfactory result. Turning to 

 the left or western bank we find the road ascend by a side cutting, 

 displaying those familiar schists and slates which for want of a 

 better name we call Siluro-Devonian. Here and there we observe 

 patches of horizontal conglomerate resting upon their upturned 

 edges, and on the summit we find a massive capping of the same. 

 As we descend, we lose it, though scattered pebbles from that 

 source are still to be seen on the surface. 



At Buccarumbi we cross the Nymboi, just below its junction 

 with the Boyd, or Little River, up which we run, through 

 schists, hard slates, and quartzites, to Broadmeadows, where 

 we leave it (in granite) for the Henry or Newton Boyd 

 River, a tributary of the Mann or Mitchell. (Every river 

 here has an alias or two.) After crossing the former we strike 

 the right bank of the latter, and keep it more or less until we 

 cross this also just before the ascent to the table land. The road 

 all the way from Broadmeadows winds over a tract of soft and 

 decomposing granite forming a steeply undulating surface enclosed 

 and invaded by impassable ranges of greenstone, or equally 

 forbidding rock. The river bottoms however are floored with 

 extremely hard, that is, undecomposed granite. A spur of 

 this softer granite, the Big Hill, carries the road up 2000 feet 

 higher, to the open granitic downs, black soil flats, and rich 

 agricultural lands formed by the decomposition of volcanic rock, 

 which form the superficial riches of New England. 



