Fingal and East Coast. 33 



The Fingal road itself, after leaving Avoca, passes for 

 some miles through thick beds of gravel, containing 

 rounded fragments of granite, clay-slate, quartzose sand- 

 stone, quartz pebbles, greenstone, and silicified wood, 

 &c., — bearing the most indubitable testimony to the 

 character of the agency employed to excavate the valley, 

 and give it its present form. 



About seven or eight miles from Avoca the clay-slate 

 succeeds to granite ; thence it is continued, with little 

 interruption, to the point of union of the South Esk and 

 Break-o'-day Rivers. 



On the northern bank of the South Esk it forms high 

 ridges, which, running in a meridional direction, jut 

 down to the river's margin, exhibiting occasionally, where 

 hard quartzy matter prevails, broad mural lines or bands, 

 which stand out in bold and striking relief from the 

 masses of softer rock to which they pertain. 



The clay-slate is rarely exposed in the channel of the 

 river, though it appears at intervals on the immediate 

 bank of the southern side. 



It is agam entirely lost under the rich alluvial flats 

 forming the expanse of the valley, to re-appear in pro- 

 jecting ridges, which correspond, in their north and south 

 disposition, with those on the northern side of the river. 



These ridges, approximating and rising as they retire 

 from the valley, form a massive atlas-like base-work for 

 the support of the overlying and less inclined stratified 

 rocks, and of the elevated plateau of greenstone already 

 mentioned. 



The clay-slate is every where highly inclined ; and, as 

 is usual in the more m.caceous and softer beds of this 

 formation, it is often wavy and much contorted. 



In the deep cuttings near the township of Fingal, 

 many singularly beautiful illustrations are to be seen of 

 these tortuosities, 



D 



