BY EDGAR HALL, F.C.S., AND HENKY G. STOKES, F.G.S. 119 



veins will be found. In Queensland, asbestos seems to have been 

 overlooked by the prospector, although serpentine formations 

 are extensive. Daintree in his report on the geology of the 

 Rockhampton district mentions it as occurring in the serpentine 

 about Mount Wheeler. It is to this district we wish to refer 

 to-night as a probable future source of asbestos. 



From Mount Wheeler, not far from Rockhampton, a belt of 

 serpentine runs northwards to Marlborough, near Broad Sound, 

 and forms semi-detached masses of low hills, which in some 

 places, have weathered into fantastic and picturesque shapes. 

 The serpentine where visible is soft, seems much decomposed, 

 and most of the streams contain water heavily charged with 

 magnesia. We are informed that asbestos is found all through 

 this belt of serpentine, but our observations were confined to a 

 portion about 60 miles north of Rockhampton, near the jimction 

 of Tilpal, Princhester, and Glen Prairie runs. At this place 

 some mining work has been done, and the asbestos veins 

 exposed. The site of the work is a hill about 500 feet above 

 sea level, which rises about 300 feet above the country immedi- 

 ately around it, and which we are informed is the northern end of 

 the serpentine belt. The formation is serpentine traversed by 

 dykes of dolerite and granuliie, and, as is the case in Canada, 

 these dykes appear to have affected the asbestos veins favourably, 

 the miners stating that nowhere in the range are the veins so 

 large as here. At our visit the hill had been opened in many 

 places, all of which showed veins of asbestos of size varying 

 from half an inch up to two feet in thickness, the larger veins 

 consisting, as would be anticipated, of the imperfect mineral 

 picrolite. The work done was entirely in decomposed country, 

 the unchanged serpentine not having been reached, and owing 

 to the ignorance of the workmen of where best to look for the 

 mineral, most of the work was useless. It was sufficient, how- 

 ever, to bring out prominently the chief features of the deposit, 

 a section 85 feet long being obtained across the strike in one 

 tmmel, and a quarry face 20 feet long exhibiting a section at 

 right angles to the tunnel. These sections show numerous veins 

 of asbestos following the general dip of the rocks, and appear- 

 ing as segregation veins, the enclosing walls being slightly altered 

 for a short distance from the veins. The smaller veins contain 



