Deposits, Limestone Creek 9 



here and there, on the crests of the dividing ridges, 

 contorted schistose rocks protruding. These are both argil- 

 laceous and silicious in character, and generally finely 

 laminated, showing a dip of from 70° W. to vertical at 

 N.N.W. At lower levels a mass of diorite is met with, 

 presenting in the weathering rounded boulders traces of its 

 igneous origin. The soil formed by the disintegration of 

 the latter is shown to be very fertile by the rich carpeting 

 of grasses at this place. So far as I could judge from the 

 altered indurated appearance of the rocks at contact, this 

 mass has been protruded, or rather intruded, from deep- 

 seated sources along the line of section, and not, as might be 

 suggested, either interbedded with the sedimentary rocks, 

 or the remnant of a once larger mass intruded elsewhere. 

 The rock appears to be a mixture of felspar and hornblende 

 principally. On the spurs descending the valley of the 

 Limestone Creek the normal Silurian slates are seen, inclined 

 at high angles, generally 70' to W., and vary in colour from 

 yellow to bluish grey — soft, yellowish sandstone, and 

 micaceo-argillaceous slate, thin bedded or finely laminated. 

 On the creek flats are deposits of tertiary gravels, frequently 

 auriferous, and which may hereafter be profitably sluiced 

 for gold. Several of the western tributaries of the Lime- 

 stone Creek are also auriferous, and one, Slaty Creek, contains 

 titaniferous ironsand with cassiterite.* On the east bank of 

 the creek is a bluffy outcrop of what appears to be thin- 

 bedded blue limestone, the beds varying from a few inches 

 to as many feet thick, and inclined at an angle of 70' to W., 

 with strike to N.N.W., in fact, parallel with the slates with 

 which they are interbedded. These apparent blue lime- 

 stones, however, when broken, exhibit a crystalline, some- 

 what saccharoidal texture, and vary in colour from milky 

 white to shades of light grey, and are found to be more or 

 less full of thin yellow seams parallel to the bedding planes. 

 The quality of this marble, on an analysis of hand specimens, 

 seems good, yielding a small percentage of earthy matter, 

 and a large percentage of carbonate of lime ; yet even where 

 the beds are thickest thsse seams would probably deteriorate 

 from the commercial value of the deposit. Whether these 

 seams are in any way due to the percolation of surface 

 waters holding colouring matter, such as one of the oxides of 



* Geological Survey of Victoria, Vol. IV., p. 189. 



