616 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



in which the " Desert Sandstone " was deposited. In all probability 

 the granite stood up as ranges prior to the deposition of the Desert 

 Sandstone by virtue of its superior hardness to the surrounding 

 unaltered slate and greywacke rocks. When subsequently a sub- 

 mergence took place, the unaltered rocks, having been previously 

 denuded into lowlands, were covered over by the Desert Sandstone. 

 To one travelling northward from the Coleman River, the sandstone 

 first appears far to the west, but it gradually steals eastward, lapping 

 round the base of the range till it reaches the eastern sea-board at 

 Temple Bay. 



The sandstone has a very gentle dip to the west and north, away 

 from the granite so gentle that there seems no reason to ascribe 

 it to unequal upheaval, since the gradual deepening of the bottom 

 on which the sandstone was deposited, as it receded from the 

 land, is quite sufficient to account for it. This gentle dip coincides, 

 or nearly coincides, with the fall of the ground from the ranges 

 to the Gulf, while the Wilkinson, Geikie, Sir William Thomson 

 and Richardson " Ranges " are the eastern escarpments of massive 

 sandstone beds [or shelves]. 



The question of the geological age of the Desert Sandstone, 

 which Daintree justly characterised as " the most wide-spread 

 sedimentary formation in Queensland," is a very puzzling one, 

 and much apparently contradictory evidence has been brought 

 forward on the point. I hope to discuss the whole question 

 shortly in the pages of a scientific journal. At present I shall 

 only state my belief that the formation is homotaxial with the 

 European Cretaceous rocks. 



There is every reason to believe that the auriferous slates, etc., 

 of the Palmer district are represented in the Peninsula further 

 north, and may yet give up their wealth, but they are covered with 

 such a thickness of " Desert Sandstone " as practically puts them 

 beyond our reach for the present age. The granitic rocks forming 

 the nuclei of the ranges, especially of the Mclvor and Mcllwraith 

 Ranges, are to some extent auriferous, although apparently not 

 sufficiently so to pay for European labour under the present con- 

 ditions. My impression was that the " South Coen " (or Kendall ?) 

 and the Peach could be at least worked with profit by Chinamen. 

 Since the date of our visit to these rivers, however, the South Coen 

 has been " rushed " by Chinese, who have returned disappointed, 

 owing, it is said, to the expense of land carriage and the hostility 

 of the blacks ; they never reached the Peach. 



It is much to be regretted that the Peach was not more 

 exhaustively prospected. The expedition started at the worst 

 possible time of the year. Only a very hurried examination had 

 been made when the floods came and rendered prospecting in the 

 bed of such a river an impossibility. We travelled northward in 

 the hope of finding payable gold elsewhere, and with the intention 



