1865.] MACFARLANE — GEOLOGICAL SKETCH OF ROSSIE. 269 



The general strike of the schistose rocks above mentioned is 

 north and south (magnetic). Although there are often very wide 

 deviations from this course, they seldom go beyond N. 45° W. and 

 N. 45° E., the deviations to the eastward being much more fre- 

 quent than those in a westerly direction. Occasionally the rocks 

 may seem to run due east and west, but this is only in small areas, 

 and owing to local contortions of the strata. These contortions 

 are often of the most surprising and intricate character, and 

 remind the observer of the figures formed by the foam of a river 

 when it has reached comparatively still water, and is acted on by 

 currents flowing with different degrees of rapidity or in different 

 directions. They also bear a resemblance to the contortions visible 

 on many pieces of slag which may be picked up on the heaps pro- 

 duced at the Rossie iron-furnaces. In fact, the edges of such 

 pieces, showing bands of different color and grain in beautiful 

 convolutions, present a miniature counterpart of the upturned 

 edges of the contorted gneissoid strata. As in all primitive regions, 

 these strata assume in Rossie an almost vertical position. On the 

 east side of the Indian River a few beds are observable dipping 

 about 5° west ; but very generally the strata are highly inclined, 

 and if not quite vertical, only a very few degrees removed from it. 



It will be observed that the rocks of this district coincide closely in 

 their various characters with the same rocks in other and far-distant 

 primitive regions; and when we reflect that they possess the same 

 general strike and inclination, the same mineralogical constituents 

 and modes of aggregation, it is impossible to avoid forming the con- 

 clusion that they are the products of some processes of vast mag- 

 nitude and force, which must have been in operation at the same 

 time over the whole of the earth's surface, and during the very 

 earliest stages of its development. Assuming these processes to 

 have been of plutonic nature, the general north and south strike 

 of all primitive stratified rocks might be-supposed to represent the 

 general direction of the flow of the igneous material from the soli- 

 dification of which the rocks resulted. 



Among the economic minerals occurring in Rossie, an impor- 

 tant place is occupied by the ores of lead and iron. Several very 

 important veins containing the former were explored many years 

 ago with success, and are at present being worked quite extensively. 

 The veinstone of the Coalhill, Victoria and Un'on lodes consist 

 principally of calcspar and galena, with occasional traces of fluor- 

 spar and copper pyrites. These lodes cut the gneissoid strata 



