32 Fingal and East Coast. 



About the centre of these limits is a plateau of eruptive 

 rock, having an elevation of 1 200 to 1 800 feet. It is green- 

 stone. Its surface undulates much, and is deeply inter- 

 sected and scooped out by a number of rapid torrents. 



The Break-o'-day River, the Fingal Rivulet, the St. 

 Paul's River, the Swan and the Apsley Rivers, and the 

 Douglas River, all take their rise within this elevated 

 area of greenstone. 



On the flanks and sides of the hills, and occasionally in 

 the deep channels of the mountain streams, the earlier 

 stratified rocks are exposed. 



From Avoca to the east coast near Falmouth a good 

 road has been made : in its course there are many deep 

 and interesting sections of the transition clay-slates, of 

 which the flooring ^ so to speak, of the valley of the South 

 Esk is composed. 



Greenstone obtains exclusively at and immediately 

 around Avoca, forming low hills which rise from flats, 

 themselves considerably elevated above the lower level 

 of the river channels : on these higher flats, and the 

 rounded eminences springing from them, there occurs at 

 brief intervals a talus of diluvial gravel and sand, or 

 sand alone, the origin of which can scarcely be under- 

 stood without a close study of the stratified and other 

 rocks in the upper portions of the valley. 



Taking the Fingal road toward Avoca, the geological 

 observer soon sees, on the opposite bank of the South 

 Esk River, an irregular line of rounded hills of granite, 

 rising a few hundred feet above the level of the stream. 

 This granite continues along the northern bank of the 

 river several miles : it is then replaced with clay-slate, 

 in beds nearly vertical ; which are crossed and recrossed 

 in every conceivable way by veins of quartz, and of 

 quartz intermingled with ferruginous matter, from an inch 

 to several feet in thickness. 



