205 
PAL#0ZOIC. 
As already stated, a very remarkable sandstone occupies the 
coastline extending westernly from Point Marsden to an unknown 
distance on the west side of Smith’s Bay, and is different from 
any other formation that I have seen in the colony. Mr. H. Y. 
L. Brown, Government Geologist, who visited the district a few 
weeks earlier than myself, has described the peculiar features of 
this formation in a report recently published. It is a compara- 
tively soft, laminated, reddish-coloured sandstone, frequently 
exhibiting mica on the planes of stratification, and is false-bedded 
as well as contorted in places. It weathers easily under the 
action of the sea, and is frequently converted by this process into 
a honeycombed rock. At some horizons the sandstone is of a 
sub-argillaceous character, and exhibits a tesselated system of 
jointing, marked by double raised ridges surrounding each square, 
as is sometimes seen in deposits of clay-iron ore. 
At Emu Bay and on the east side of Smith’s Bay there are 
thick beds of dark-coloured laminated shale. 
At Point Marsden, and for some distance in a westernly direc- 
tion, the dip is 15° north-east. At White Point the dip has 
increased to 45° in the same direction. On the east side of Emu 
Bay the dip is reversed at 15° to south-west, and on the west side 
of the same Bay the dip is once more to the east and east-south- 
east at about the same angle. At Smith’s Bay the dip once 
more varies from north-west to north-north-east. 
The most striking feature of this formation is the presence of 
a number of beds of Breccia, which are intercalated with the 
sandstones near the highest exposed beds of the series. These 
Breccia-beds are somewhat irregular, varying much in thickness 
within short distances ; they are roughly lenticular in section, 
and do not in any case exceed a maximum thickness of six feet. 
The included fragments vary in size from coarse grit up to blocks 
two feet in length, although stones of the latter size are very 
rare. The fragments are almost without exception sharply 
angular. 
The contents of these Breccia-beds are extremely varied. 
Amongst the commonest occurrences were observed a pink-colored 
felspathic gneiss, various granitoid rocks, buff and grey limestones, 
quartzites, jasperous and other varieties of quartz, and, more 
rarely, micaceous and hornblendic schists. The cementing 
agents seem to be principally calcareous or colloid silica 
(chalcedony). This great diversity of mineral character seems 
to point to the fact that the included stones of these Breccia-beds 
were gathered from a variety of sources, and the presence of a 
large number of limestone fragments is proof that the transport- 
