398 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION C. 



rocks are essentially quartz-felsites, and an examination of their 

 relation to the associated rocks shows that they are certainly older 

 than the overlying sedimentary strata, and also older than the gold- 

 bearing granite of that district. 



In company with Mr. W. Anderson and Mr. H F. Pitt- 

 mann, A.R.S.M., I lately examined the locality, and we entirely 

 agreed with Mr. Anderson in his interpretation of the section, the 

 principal features of which are shoAvn on sketch section (Plate XV.). 

 Section 1 represents a mass of quartz-felsite, occupying an area 

 of several square miles. The junction line between it and the 

 overlying sedimentary rocks is an eroded one, and there is no 

 evidence of the felsite having anywhere intruded them. 



The lowest stratum of the sedimentary rocks is formed of a thick 

 bed of basal conglomerate, composed chiefly of pebbles of quartz- 

 felsite imbedded in a matrix of finer material derived from the 

 disintegration of the same rock. The pebbles composing such 

 portions of this basal conglomerate as have filled in hollows in the 

 eroded surface of the quartz-felsite are coarse, being several inches 

 in diameter. The conglomerate graduates upwards into a reddish 

 grit, with layers of reddish purple shale and grey sandstone, in 

 the first and last of which beds several obscure casts of brachiopods 

 Avere -observed. About 50ft. above the surface of the quartz-felsite 

 Lt)iido(l(nulron aiistrale occurs in situ in a bed of gre}' sandstone, 

 and also in some hard sandy shales on a horizon about 40ft. above 

 the preceding. At the top of the hill, at a total elevation of about 

 200fti above the surface of the quartz-felsite, Lepidodendron aus- 

 trale was ifiund m situ associated with marine fossils, one of which 

 closely resembles Spirifera disjuncta. 



The dip of these sedimentary rocks is very low, and in places 

 they are nearly horizontal. The whole series of sedimentary rocks 

 is quite conformable, and probably belongs throughout to one 

 period of deposition. This section proves the quartz-felsite to be 

 older than the Lepidodendnm australe beds with their associated 

 marine fossils. As regards the age of these latter, it is probable 

 that they are referable either to the top of the Devonian or to the 

 base of the Carboniferous series. Lithologically the beds closely 

 resemble the Mount Lambie beds, near Rydal, in New South 

 Wale?, w^hich are in part Upper Devonian, and the Avon River 

 sandstones and shales of Victoria, which also contain Lepido- 

 dendron australe, and which have been doubtfully referred by 

 Mr. R. A. F. Murray, the Government Geologist of Victoria, to 

 the top of the Upper Devonian or to the base of the Carboniferous 

 System. 



An examination of the section further to the east in the direction 

 of the Clyde Mountain showed that a seiies of sedimentary rocks, 

 probably once continuous with those overlying the quartz-felsite 

 near Major's Creek, contained Rhyncnonella pleurodon in enor- 

 mous numbers. 



