PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION C. 423 
abutting against the granite is rather an interesting one. It is, 
in most cases, an evidently foliated rock, but can hardly be called 
a typical mica or hornblende schist. In some cases it is rather 
coarse-grained, and almost gneissic in appearance, while in others 
it is very fine-grained, and suggests a felstone. Examined under 
the microscope, it is holocrystalline, largely made up of quartz, 
with a good deal of mica, probably biotite, perhaps a little horn- 
blende, but with more of a rather indefinite greenish mineral, 
which may be called viridite in default of a more definite name. 
In the coarser grained varieties felspar may be recognised, while 
even the closest specimens I have found show a distinctly 
schistose character when cut. 
This rock may be found at Locksley, to the south-east of 
Bathurst; at Peel, to the north-east; near Vittoria, west ; 
Wimbledon, south-west ; as well as at intermediate points, some 
of these places being more than twenty miles apart. On first 
viewing some of these rocks, one is tempted to consider them as 
igneous and intrusive, but on comparing a large series of 
specimens from different localities, one tinds so many intermediate 
gradations that it appears almost certain that they are of 
essentially similar character, and are probably a very good 
example of contact metamorphism produced by the granite, 
partly by heat and partly by the introduction of new, especially 
silicious, matter, and that they form a fringe completely 
surrounding the granite. 
As we pass off the contact rock, we find that the character of 
the rocks soon changes. At Peel we find a rather curious spotted 
schist, z.¢., a silky-looking schist with numerous black spots. I 
have not critically examined the spots, but doubt if they are of 
one definite mineral. The schists reminded me of some of those 
found in Cumberland, in the neighbourhood of the Skiddaw 
granite. I have searched, but hitherto in vain, for chiastolite, 
slate or schist so well known in Cumberland. The spotted schist 
passes into a series of silky slates, or schists which may be called 
phyllites, and these again, near Vittoria, into soft black slates, 
not unlike the Skiddaw slates. To the east of Bathurst I have 
not seen any well cleaved slates, but rocks of various types occur, 
such as gribs filled with casts of brachiopods, especially Spirifer 
adisjunctus and Rhynconella pleurodon, and a few corals. There 
are also limestones with encrinite stems. Some of these rocks 
are traversed by dykes of felstone and dioritic rocks, mostly 
highly silicious. The slates and similar rocks are probably Upper 
Silurian or Devonian. Rather to the north of Bathurst we find 
a series of massive rocks of slaty character, but with no distinct 
cleavage. I have found no fossils in these as yet. To the south 
we have an interesting area, near the old mining township of 
Cow Flat, now nearly deserted. The rocks in this district are 
highly metamorphosed, some of them being more gneissic than 
