18 Whale's Head and South Cape. 



not aware of any granite formation existing in the 

 vicinity, nor did I see any more of it imbedded. 



As it is probable that the clay and sandstone rocks, 

 which alternate with shale, — all rather fine and even in 

 their composition, — and which apparently pass in the 

 upper series of beds into coal, have been deposited in the 

 waters of an estuary, it becomes a curious question, in 

 what manner a large rounded mass of granite could 

 arrive in such a position : the transporting power and 

 agency of glaciers, or — and which is more probable— of 

 icebergs, may possibly be considered necessary to explain 

 the phenomenon. 



To the massive clayey stratum succeeds sandstone, 

 which, a little lower in the series, is again replaced 

 by compact beds of hard tenacious clayey rock with im- 

 pressions as before. Sections of each are visible along 

 the north-east side of the harbour, in the direction of the 

 crop of the strata. 



A shaft was sunk a few years ago by the Government 

 in the line of dip of the strata, and about half a mile 

 from the Southport Station, where the black shale is 

 exposed. Some beds of shaly matter were penetrated, 

 but coal was not obtained. 



The direct distance, and nearly in the line of dip of 

 these beds, to the northern port in Recherche Bay, does 

 not exceed six miles : at Recherche the rocks are of sand- 

 stone and shale, and dip still to the same quarter. It 

 may, therefore, be presumed that they are continuous, or 

 that they have at one time been so, though they now 

 undulate and vary from the intrusion of trap-rocks. 



On the eastern side of this part of Recherche the beach 

 is almost exclusively composed of fragments of fossil- 

 wood, resulting from the disintegration of the yellow 

 arenaceous beds overlying the carboniferous sandstone. 

 The remains of two shafts, and of a nearly horizontal 



