HONEYMAN OX GEOLOGY OF GAY'S RIVER GOLD FIELD. ( ( 



crossing the road iu numerous outcrops, shewing that we had 

 passed from the lower carboniferous into the horizon of our 

 gold fields. At a short distance to the left of the road, gold 

 dia:giugs are observed. 



Passing onward we still meet with outcrops of argillite, and 

 other diggings appear nearer the road and on the same side of 

 it, and then on the right side : and at a little distance from the 

 road there is a brook with a saw-mill, where other digginsfs are 

 to be seen. Farther on we still find an outcrop of argillite, and 

 then we evidently pass again into the lower carboniferous, as I 

 observed, about two miles distance from the last argillite out- 

 crop,^ plaster pits on either side of the road, and succeeding 

 these at some distance, an outcrop of sandstone. We have thus 

 on this road a geological section, showing a lower silurian 

 centre, succeeded on either side by lowei" carboniferous rocks. 

 My attention was chiefly directed to the first of the diggings 

 referred to. In the examination of these I received valuable 

 aid from Mr. Gay, to whom I am indebted for much of the 

 information which I am now to commimicate. On examining 

 the excavations made, I found an extension of the argillite, which 

 I have referred to as outcropping on the road, unconformably 

 overlaid by a thick stratum of conglomerate of undoubted lower 

 carboniferous age, and the latter in turn overlaid by a thick 

 accumulation of drift material. The argillite underlying the 

 conglomerate exactly resembles the slates of many of our pro- 

 ductive gold fields, being of a greenish hue and greasy touch. 

 It is inclined at the usual high angle. The conglomerate 

 reposes on the edges of argillite, appearing to dip slightly 

 in a direction opposite to the dip of the former strata. This 

 conglomerate is of variable coarseness, and a slight examination 

 of its composition is suflicieut to show that this locality was, so 

 to speak, an " Ovens" in the lower carboniferous era, — that it 

 was a beach on which the shingle of the period accumulated, 

 derived from the argillites, quartzites, cj^uartz, and granites of 

 the lower silurian period, — that the shingle was cemented by 

 the ferruginous constituents of the same rock, decomposed by 

 the chemical action of the salts of this ancient sea. The con- 

 glomerate is composed of slate, quartzites, quartz, mica, felspar 



