40 



Notes on the Tertiary Strata beneath 

 Adelaide. 



By Peofessor Ralph Tate, Assoc. Lin. Soc, F.G.S., Corr. 

 Memb. Acad. Sc, Phil.; Eoy. Soc, Tasm.; Lin. Soc, 



isr.s.w., &c 



Plate I. 

 [Kead June 13, 1882.] 



Hitherto the knowledge of the existence of Miocene strata 

 beneath the City of Adelaide was limited to a small exposure 

 of fossiliferous sandstone in the quarry at the rear of the 

 Government Domain and to shallow well-sinkings, which for 

 the most part do not penetrate the uppermost fossiliferous bed 

 just mentioned. 



Towards the end of last year the Hydraulic Engineer com- 

 menced a boring in the Waterworks Yard at Kent Town with 

 the view simply of putting the machine on its trial, and to 

 afford persons interested in the application of the diamond 

 drill to the search for subterranean water the opportunity of 

 seeing it in action. By request, I periodically visited the 

 work, and reported on the progress of the boring, which was 

 brought to a close after penetration to a depth of 411 feet, 360 

 feet of w^hich was in Tertiary strata, and the remainder in the 

 underlying fundamental rocks. The extracted cores range 

 from eight and a-half to six inches in diameter. These reveal 

 so interesting and complete a section of the Older Tertiaries 

 that it seems desirable to record the stratigraphical succession 

 in full; but as the boring section does not commence with 

 youngest member of our Marine Miocene, I have incorporated 

 in the section on Plate I. the strata exposed in recent drainage 

 works, and in the quarry section (now concealed) at the rear 

 of the Government Domain, which fill up the hiatus. Indeed, 

 over the site of the bore-hole a considerable thickness of the 

 Older Tertiaries has bee a denuded, and its place occupied with 

 Pliocene drifts. 



The horizontal section, Plate I., represents the grade from 

 King William-road along North-terrace to the Kent Town 

 AVaterworks Yard. The western end of the section gives the 

 stratigraphical succession supplied by the drainage works and 

 the quarry ; the eastern end, that of the vertical section, deter- 

 mined from an examination of the bore-cores. 



