JSarnj Page Woodward— Geology of Western Ausfralia. 547 



for the whole is covered by sand. From Cape Naturaliste to Cape 

 Leeuwin is a low ridge of crystalline rocks, but between this and 

 the Darling Range the low swampy and sandy flats still continue 

 to the south coast. Beneath this flat a large series of Mesozoic Coal- 

 seams have been discovered by boring, but no Coal of commercial 

 value has yet been found. 



The South coast consists of a series of rough granite headlands, 

 with low sandy and swampy country behind them, and this extends 

 inland for a distance of about 30 miles, when the crystalline rocks 

 again outcrop. This type of country extends eastward as far as 

 the Great Australian Bight, where a bold escarpment of limestone, 

 about 200 feet in height, presents a vertical face to the sea, some- 

 times rising abruptly from it and sometimes being separated by low 

 sandy plains and raised beaches. 



The Central or interior section, as far as known, consists of a 

 sandy table-land, broken by numerous lake basins, around which the 

 granitic and crystalline rocks outcrop, and it is in these areas of 

 depression that the rich gold-fields of Coolgardie, the Murchison, 

 Yilgarn, and Dundas are situated. The sand-plains are supposed 

 to belong to the Mesozoic age and to be the western extension of 

 the " Great Desert Sandstone " formation of the Central and Eastern 

 colonies. 



It will be seen from the following summary that the principal 

 geological formations are represented, although (if we except the 

 Palaeozoic formations) only to a small extent. 



Cainozoio. 



The Becent deposits are represented in the Lake-beds, Eiver- 

 Valleys, Estuaries, Sand-Dunes, Raised-Beaches, and Shell-Marls. 



The Pliocene in the Pindan plains of Kimberley, ferruginous 

 sandstones, and variegated clays, with plant-remains on the Gascoyne 

 River and North-west coast; and the gravels and conglomerates of 

 the Darling Range. 



The Eocene in the Coralline limestones of Shark's Bay; clays, 

 sandstones, grits, and conglomerates of Champion Bay ; limestones 

 with flints of the Bight. 



Mesozoic. 



The Cretaceous formation is met with near the coast, 50 miles 

 north of Perth ; it extends northward to the Murchison River, and 

 occurs also in the Kennedy Range upon the Gascoyne River, and 

 between Capes Naturaliste and Leeuwin. It consists of beds of 

 chalky limestone, with flints, sandstones, conglomerates, and clays. 

 The sandstone of the table-land in the interior is also supposed to 

 be of this age. 



The Jurassic formation underlies the Cretaceous in the Champion 

 Bay district, where a series of Oolitic limestones, clays, sandstones, 

 ferruginous sandstones, grits, and conglomerates occur, which contain 

 the characteristic fossils.^ 



1 See Geol. Mag. for Sept. and Oct. 1894, pp. 385 and 433, Pis. XII. and XIII. 



