404 Norman Taylor— The Cudgegong Diamond Field. 



and, passing the stuff through a small Hunt's machine, obtained two 

 diamonds and f dwt. of gold. The diamonds seemed to have 

 suffered by the burning, as they were quite destitute of lustre. The 

 Eeedy Creek deposits contain much larger masses of fossil wood and 

 agate than elsewhere, although the accompanying gems are of the 

 usual size. The total number of diamonds obtained by the Company, 

 while operations lasted, was 1765. 



To the east of the village is a long ridge, capped by basalt under- 

 laid by drift, and running nearly due north from the junction back. 

 It is nearly connected, at its north end, by another outlying mass 

 of basalt running easterly. These are merely outliers of the main 

 flow, which is more extensively developed to the east. The basalt 

 of these outliers is higher than that in the Company's lease, and 

 between these two outliers is shallow ground, the top of a sandstone 

 hill, which has split the old river channel. The higher ground is 

 covered by a rounded pebble wash, but on the fall to the back 

 of the diggings, slates and quartz-reefs crop out, evidently a 

 continuation of the rocks on the south side of the river. This 

 basalt hill was worked on its south and east faces, and a pretty rich 

 gold lead was discovered ; some diamonds are said to have been 

 found, but were never properly looked for. The sinking varies 

 from 66 to nearly 90 feet. In sinking through the above-mentioned 

 easterly outlier, three-quarters of a mile north of the village, the 

 basalt was found to rest upon fine fissile white and grey shaly beds, 

 full of indistinct plant-remains, and with no intervening drift — in 

 fact, the drift further back appears to rest upon, and not beneath, 

 the basalt, but it is most likely a more recent wash. Some speci- 

 mens of the above-mentioned plants were forwarded to Professor 

 M'Coy, and pronounced by him to be identical with those of the 

 Cape Patterson Mesozoic Coal -rocks in Victoria. I was unable, at 

 the time, to determine the relations of this bed to the Carboniferous 

 beds of Tallawang, or of either to the green and purple conglomerates 

 west of the Cuclgebeyong Creek (described hereafter). 



About half a mile above the Eeedy Creek junction, and up the 

 river, is a small outcrop of horizontally-bedded alternating grey 

 shales and coarse grits, capped by a conglomerate bed. The shales 

 contain leaf impressions, and the grit traces. The beds form a 

 slight arch, dipping from the centre towards north-west and south- 

 east, but it is probably only a local undulation. They immediately 

 underlie the basalt, which here comes to the river, and forms a bold 

 escarpment, at first on the west side, but afterwards on both sides 

 to within a short distance below Guntawang. Several shafts were 

 sunk on Mr. Eouse's property to the west of the river, and bottomed 

 on horizontal conglomerates ; these are again seen at Biraganbil, 

 where they consist of friable grits, with indistinct plant-remains, 

 and hard thick-bedded conglomerates. These beds seem to occupy 

 all the lower country, at the foot of the ranges to the west of the 

 river ; the east side is covered up with Tertiarj^ drifts and basalt, 

 and the old river-bed must have been at some distance to the east 

 of its present course. The basalt has flowed from the north-east 



