39 



level of the ironstone table-land and continues to Mount Denison 

 in the Peake system of rocks. The metaniorphic rocks of this 

 system huxe the form of an arroAv with its point to the southward. 

 The Mount Kingston ridge represents the shaft while the 

 t^uartzite ridge from Coppertop Hill to Mount Denison and 

 thence north-west again to Peake Creek represents the barbs. 

 Quartzite of reddish white colour, massive and compact, is the 

 highest member of the series here. Under it are argillaceous, 

 chloritic, micaceous and hornblendic schists, with bands of 

 crystalline limestone which weather black on the surfaces, re- 

 \'ealing small fragments of schist incorporated with it. Numerous 

 outcrops of a coarse red granite with large felspar crystals inter- 

 sect the strata, which have a most confused strike and dij^, due 

 to the granitic and syenitic eruptions which have taken place. 

 South of the Telegraph Station the granite contains white mica 

 and tourmaline in fair-sized black crystals. A sectional line 

 across the ranges from Peake Telegraph vStation shows three 

 ridges, the first granite and schist, the second syenite of grey 

 colour and schist, and the third of quartzites and talcose slates 

 in thin bands, as seen forming tlie highest beds at Mount 

 Margaret. Dykes of diorite of small dimensions traverse the 

 schists and small veins of quartz containing oxide of copper and 

 secondary formations of atacamite are common, but I saw nothing 

 worth following up as a probable continuous metallic vein except 

 tlie- exposure to the west of the Telegraph Station. The sectional 

 drawings will best convey the relatiAe sequence of the rocks 

 forming the ranges and the table-land deposits which occur in 

 their hollows or on the flanks of the range. The line of the 

 Peake Creek as it comes through the range is evidently that of a 

 great fault, wherein the range and its granite core have been dis- 

 turbed by subsequent forces. On the middle ridge, west of the 

 Peake Station, are some fragments of schistose rocks forming a 

 breccia-capping to the hill. The fragments are angular and 

 evidently not waterworn to any very apj^reciable extent. 



4. Algebuckinxa. — Where the telegraph line crosses the 

 Neales River schists are seen, traversed by granite and quartz- 

 syenite-dykes ; in the schists are pale garnets of small size, and 

 some strings of ricli copper ore similar to that at Peake ; large 

 reefs of magnetic iron accompany the syenite. The channel of 

 the creek has an exposure of metaniorphic rocks, ttc, for about 

 tAvo and a half miles in length. The banks of the channel are 

 about 90 feet high, and about one mile apart. The sectional 

 drawing shows the bank to be composed of impure kaolin resting 

 directly on the metaniorphic series, having overlying beds of 

 coarse and flne gravel, wdth thin clay partings, and the whole 

 capped by a six to 12 feet stratum of very hard, coarse-grained, 



