ON CUPRIFEROUS TUFFS. 277 



the tuffs associated with the Lower Carboniferous strata at Abden, 

 near Kinghorn, Fife, having suggested the idea, which was found 

 to be correct upon a microscopic examination. 



LOCALITIES. 



Cupriferous shales have been discovered at the following 

 places : — 



1. At the 1,312 feet (completed in 1878) diamond drill bore at 



Newington, on the Parramatta River, near Parramatta, 

 where it was observed by Mr. Waterhouse. 



2. At BuUi, the shale is said to outcrop in the hills at a level 



of about 700 feet above the Bulli coal seam. 



3. At the 2,307 feet diamond drill bore completed in 1887, at 



Dent's Creek, on the Holt-Sutherland Estate, between Port 

 Hacking and Botany Bay. 



4. At the 1,586 feet diamond drill bore, completed in 1886, at 



Heathcote, on the Illawarra line, twenty-seven miles 

 southerly from Sydney. 



STRATIGRAPHY. 



The stratigraphical relation of the cupriferous shales to the 

 formations above and below them is best illustrated by the complete 

 sections afforded by the Holt-Sutherland and Heathcote Bores. 

 Both these bores commenced in the sandstone of the Hawkesbury 

 Series, and were continued through the underlying Passage Beds 

 into the coal seams of the Upper Coal-measures. 



The following is an abridged descending section of the Dent's 

 Creek Bore : — 



TRIASSIO. 



Hmvkeshury Series. 

 Thickness 771 feet, chiefly greyish-white and yellowish-white 

 sandstones, gritty in places with occasional beds of fine greyish- 

 white quartz conglomerate from 2|- feet to 24 feet thick, and beds 

 of dark grey shale from half a foot to 22 feet thick, with leaves 

 of Tliinnfeldia* The horizon of the Labyrinthodont remains, 

 lately discovered at Biloela, probably occurs at about 200 feet 

 below the commeni^ement of this series. 



Narrabeen Shales. Thickness 591 feet, 

 popularly called the " chocolate shales" ; 

 chiefly purplish-red or chocolate ferruginous 

 clay shales, fine dark grey mudstones, and 

 whitish -grey .sandstone, with occasional 

 bands of dark clay shale with fragments 

 of carbonised plants. At Nan'abeen, nine 

 miles (?) N.E. from Sydney, these beds 

 contain Thinnfeldia (?), and Glossopteris 

 ^ tmniopteroides (?). 



* See Stephens, Proa Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, I. pt. 3, p. 931 ; and II. pt. 1, p. 156. 



Passage Beds. 



