THE GLASSHOUSE MOUNTAINS. 
By JOHN SHIRLEY, B. Sc. 
District INSPECTOR OF SCHOOLS. 
A Paper read before the Royal Society of Queensland 
on April 27th, 1907. 
THe Glasshouse Mountains were discovered by Captain 
Cook in May, 1770, during his first voyage to southern seas. 
They were so named from their resemblance, at a distance, 
to the glass furnaces or glass houses with which Cook was 
so familiar in Northern England. They were sighted by 
Flinders in July, 1802, and are mentioned in his “ Voyage 
to Terra Australis in H.M.S. The Investigator.” 
Mr. Stutchbury, who visited the Caboolture district 
in August, 1854, gives the following description of these 
strange peaks:—The special forms and characteristics 
which the Glasshouse Mountains present are peculiarly 
interesting. At first sight, hand specimens might be taken 
for a fine grained granite ; but on examining these en masse 
and carefully viewing all the attendant circumstances, 
there can be no doubt that they are metamorphic sandstones. 
It is evident that no granite masses could have been pro- 
jected in the form they now assume ; they must have been 
surrounded by some supporting material such as the con- 
tinuation or extension of the same strata would give, now 
removed by denudation. Upon careful examination, lines 
of stratification can yet be traced. The largest of these 
mountains, ‘‘ Beerwah,” presents precipitous faces, especially 
on the northern and eastern faces, exhibiting semi-basaltic 
columns leaning from the base towards the centre.” ‘“* We 
can easily imagine that at a period subsequent to the coal 
measures there were as many foci of heat as there are now 
mountains.” 
