PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION ©. 469 
at Mount Nicholas, Ben Lomond, and Sandfly Ranges. At this 
period, which is generally regarded as Mesozoic, the summits of 
the loftier mountains formed small islands in the southern ocean. 
Subsequently, seismic action took place in various centres, and 
produced depressions of areas of the coal-measures, and these 
terrene disturbances, by eruptions of diorite, shattered and in 
many instances overflowed the coal-measure strata. This is 
evidenced in the Jerusalem coal basin, Derwent Valley, and at 
the Mersey, north of the island. The coal-beds flanking the 
mountain sides are covered up, to. a great extent, by fallen green- 
stone. At the Cornwall mine, before mentioned, the main adit 
level has been carried in for a distance of 950 yards towards the 
greenstone backbone of the mountain under fallen greenstone 
without meeting with the dyke of plutonic rock. Turning to the 
coal deposits of Victoria, in Gippsland, at South Moe, which are 
those I have examined and reported upon professionally, they are 
found to obtain to an elevation of little short of 1000 feet above 
sea level. Here, as in Tasmania, they have a very slight 
departure from the horizontal. The associated trap-rock, dark 
augitic basalt, is older than the coal, if [ may venture to make 
such an assertion, from the fact that I saw a slightly-rounded 
erratic block of the same basalt taken out of the centre of a seam 
of coal two feet eight inches thick on the Moe Coal Mining 
Company’s holdings. These coal-measures differ from those of 
Tasmania in having been laid down under fresh-water conditions. 
The complete absence of marine deposits is strikingly apparent. 
My contention is that the diabasic greenstone of the island 
colony, and also the basalt associated with the Gippsland coal 
beds of Victoria, are older than the coal-measures. In short, the 
coal-measure strata were laid down in depressions, which, at that 
time existed, in contradistinction to the older accepted theory 
that the igneous rock had burst through them. 
21—THE SILVER ORES OF THE BARRIER. 
By G. H. Buaxemors. 
22.—GRANITE: ITS PLACE AMONG, AND ITS CON- 
NECTIONS WITH THE SEDIMENTARY AND 
IGNEOUS ROCKS. 
By J. G. O. Teppsr, F.LS. 
