Physiography of Western Portion Croajingolong. 107 



Met AMORPHIC. 



On tlie McCulloch Ranges, running south from Mt. Ellery, 

 is a broad band of metamorphic schist and gneiss, apparently 

 metamorphosed Siku'iau. The central mass is a coarsely sili- 

 ceous gneiss, the siliceous material standino- out in weathered 

 samples in wavy lines. On either side is a band of micaceous 

 schist, and outward from this, nodular schist and phyllites. 

 The difference between this mass and the metamorphism 

 exhibited along; the contact with the hornblendic trranites, is 

 that in the latter the adjoining slates or sandstones are only 

 altered for a short distance from the contact — in the former, 

 the alteration has taken place along a north and south line 

 over a large area. The lithological character of these meta- 

 morphic rocks at once places them on the same stratigraphical 

 horizon as the Omeo metamorphic schists. Here, as elsewhere 

 (in the Australian Alps), the approach to the metamorphic 

 schists is marked by frequent quartz segregations along the 

 margin of the schistose area. At Mount Raymond are 

 numerous quartz diorites and felstones, apparently associated 

 with an intrusive mass of Devonian age in situ. 



Pliocene and Pleistocene. 



The bouldery wash overlying the yellow miocene lime- 

 stones and clays may be taken as a Pliocene. The deposition 

 of these washes may be said to have taken place during an 

 area of great rainfall. They are widely distributed along 

 the coast regions of Gippsland, and are overlaid by the sandy 

 coast deposits, which are probably Pleistocene and recent. 

 The rich soils on the Snowy, at Orbost, and in the Bemm and 

 Cann valleys, McCulloch Ranges, &c., are all younger 

 formations. 



Auriferous Areas. 



The only metal mined for within the area is gold, and 

 principally in the Bendoc and Bonang districts north of the 

 Coast Range. Here both quartz and alluvial workings 

 occur. Although the prospecting parties have discovered 

 many new auriferous localities on the south side of the Coast 

 Range, no payable goldfields have yet been opened up. 

 The upper portion of the Bemm, as at Combinebar Creek, 

 contains alluvial gold in the creek flats ; while recentlj', the 

 ])rospectors, under control of Mr. Norman Whitelaw, leader 

 of track-cutting parties, found rich specimens in the 



