Whale's Head and South Cape. 25 



clayey beds separated by sandstone, sections of cylindri- 

 cal bodies having much the appearance of fossil trees. 



In masses detached from these clayey beds, and pros- 

 trate near the water's edge, I found numerous impressions 

 and casts of flag-leaves, and of wood partly anthracitic 

 and partly silicious and ferruginous. 



Wherever clayey beds alternate with sandstone, they 

 yield a far richer harvest than this does of fossil remains ; 

 arguing, generally, conditions of the surface of the dry 

 lands and the circumjacent seas, during the deposition of 

 the finer sediment, at once the most favourable to the sup- 

 port of organized structures, and to their subsequent 

 preservation. 



In the direction of the basaltic dyke already mentioned 

 the strata have been much disturbed ; and at more points 

 than one prismatic greenstone may be traced from above 

 directly into the sea, overlying sandstone in the intervals. 



In the close vicinity of the little island and basaltic 

 dyke referred to, large masses of the stratified rocks 

 occur jumbled up with blocks of basaltic matter ; and 

 occasionally both are found blended with debris of every 

 kind in the confusion of a gigantic land-slip. 



Not the least interesting of the matters which attracted 

 my notice here was the appearance of the clays and 

 clayey shales, &c., altered, in many instances, to a flinty 

 degree of hardness by the action of heat from contact of 

 the igneous rocks adjoining. Interspersed in irregular 

 veins and lumps in interstices of the disintegrating green- 

 stone rock, there presented itself very abundantly a whitish 

 fatty-looking substance— unctuous to the touch, and 

 plastic as putty ; — I concluded that it might be akin to ste- 

 atite: onward, however, the same substance occurred of a 

 firmer character and consistency ; and ultimately it was 

 found hard and crystalline, and proved to be carbonate 

 of lime. 



