46 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



GEOLOGICAL and ETHNOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS 



MADE IN THE VALLEY OF THE WOLLONDILLY RIVER, 



AT ITS JUNCTION WITH THE NATTAI RIVER, 



COUNTIES CAMDEN and WESTMORELAND. 



By R. Etheridge, Junr., Palivontologist. 



[Plates XII., XIII.] 



The following observations were made during a short visit, in 

 company with Mr. W. A. Cuneo, Station-master at Thirlmere, to 

 the junction of the WoUondilly and N-attai Rivers, to further 

 examine some interesting phenomena noticed during a previous 

 visit by the latter gentleman. The localities in question form a 

 portion of the district of Burragorang, " a local name for that 

 part of the WoUondilly valley which occurs between the junction 

 of the Nattai and the Cox with the former river."* 



The WoUondilly Gorge is about twenty miles from Thirlmere, 

 and the descent into the valley commences at the highest point 

 of the route, known as " The Mountain," or in the Aboriginal 

 language as Queahgong, This point is 1,900 feet above sea-level 

 (approximately)! and the descent, by a magnificently engineered 

 although most costly zig-zag road, is very rapid and steep ; and 

 the river being itself only about one hundred and fifty feet above 

 the sea, this allows of a fall on the I'oad of at least 1,700 feet. 

 Queahgong, as the crow flies, is only one and a quarter miles 

 fi'om the Nattai junction. 



Both the WoUondilly and the Nattai have cut deep gorges 

 through the Hawkesbury Sandstone, into the Coal-measures and 

 Upper Marine beds of the Premo-Carboniferous beneath it. The 

 Hawkesbury Sandstone forms a perpendicular face of rock, a 

 sharp escarpment in fact, whilst the united Coal-measures and 

 Upper Marine present a fine slope down to the alluvial flats, 

 in places bordering the river. By the combination of these 



*W. B. Clarke, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, 1866, xxii., p. 443. 

 fThe late Kev. W. B. Clarke gave the height of the highest point in 

 his section of Burragorang as 1,91H5 feet, but I do not think it was taken 

 exactly at this spot. (See Sed. Form. N. S. Wales, Ith edit., 1878, 2nd 

 section). 



