NOTES. 209 
1. This peculiar shale, which may be called the Mitchell Shale, 
has been laid down originally in deep still water, and dips about 
six inches to the mile, south by west; it consequently appears 
to run nearly horizontal on the Western Railway Line. 
2. As I had several years ago concluded, from observations 
made at the outcrops in the various creeks crossing the 
Western Railway Line from Miles to Angellala, this shale 
averages 200 feet in thickness, and is overlaid by recent 
coal seams and desert sandstones. The same fossil (a small 
pecten) is to be found in all the outcrops of this shale, hundreds 
of miles apart. 
The Government geologist, Mr. R. L. Jack, recognised this 
shale as being identical with that found over a large extent 
of country to the north-west; so that, it is of importance to 
know how far the above conditions extend. 
I informed the Chairman of the Murrweh Divisional Board, at 
Charleville, that he would get plenty of water within 50 or 60 
feet of the surface of that place, acting under the assumption 
that the surface line of the shale was permanent. (The level of 
Charleville is 966 feet, and that of Mitchell 1,100 feet above sea 
level, and this difference being taken into consideration and 
allowance made for the dip, as above, the bottom of the shale 
would be reached at 53 feet.) The result within the last few 
days has been 18,000 gallons per day, at a depth of 53 feet. 
All the sandstone spurs, or ranges, crossing the railway line, 
except one at Amby, where there has been volcanic action, are 
due to the erosion of the valleys, and not to elevation. 
The rocks, as met with in the outcrops on the higher slopes 
of the range, and as procured from a depth by boring along the 
direction of the dip have invariably corresponded. 
I think it would be difficult to select a place west of Roma, 
where artesian water could not be obtained.* 
* The occurrence of intrusive or erupted rocks would of course afford 
conditions which might be unfavourable to such a result, as far as 
