BY PROFESSOR STEPHENS. 523 



angles to their strike, which might have been invoked, against all 

 reasonable probability, to explain the direction of the drainage. 

 The harder beds of rock are quite continuous from the north to the 

 south bank • they form projecting spurs on each, which are 

 connected by transverse bars or ridges, forming shelves and 

 rapids in the stream, as they still reluctantly yield to ancient and 

 interminable erosion. The Geological Map here marks an elongated 

 stripe of igneous rock, along which the river makes its way ; as if 

 this were a softer material which had been more easily excavated 

 than the rest. But this is evidently an error ; and I cannot help 

 suspecting that more of the Green patches in the neighbourhood 

 have in reality no claim to that colour, but rather to Mauve.* 

 The origin of the mistake in the case of the Little River 

 River is not difficult of discovery. For the road along side of it 

 is to a very large extent a ledge or cornice cut out of the solid 

 rock, which is, as has been already observed, of a most refractory 

 character, and would be rated in specifications, tenders, and 

 contracts, as equal to the hardest material. At any rate I found 

 that the name recognised in these localities for the blue flinty 

 quartzite was Basalt, and hence, I presume, the error in the Map. If 

 this be the case, it is probable that other "Green" areas in the same 

 Roads-district, will prove to have the same origin"j\ In reality 

 the whole district from OBX Creek westward as far as Broad- 

 meadows, a few miles from Newton Boyd is of the same formation 

 (Siluro-Devonian V) and is probably not destitute of fossil remains ; 

 though, from the highly metamorphic character of its greater 

 portion, they are not likely to be found easily or frequently. Gold 

 is obtained at many points, and at Dalmorton on the Boyd, a 

 mining township has been established, and some reefs are being 

 worked, with not much noticeable result. In one or two spots I 

 observed small dioritic dykes, and indications of others. But the 

 country as a whole consists of nearly vertical slates and quartzites, 

 with the usual northerly strike. 



* Green in this Map signifies Dioritic and Basaltic (Volcanic and Trappean) ; Mauve, 

 Silurian formations. 



t I have been informed that the coarse sand which forms by the decomposition of granite 

 is known in N. S.W. Railway contracts as Gneiss. Out of this misnomer strange confusion 

 might arise. 



