1864.] KEENE NEW SOUTH WALES. 139 



before the deposition of the Coal-measures, as I have shown in the 

 section : and, as there indicated, I have found the quartz and 

 limestone beds in unmistakeable succession and juxtaposition, and 

 have taken from their site a specimen of gold rooted, as it were, 

 in the limestone passing into the quartz. The limestone itself is 

 frequently so penetrated by siliceous matter as to be wholly un- 

 affected by acids. It is sometimes found deposited on a floor of 

 granite, and I believe it to be the most ancient of our fossUiferous 

 rocks. 



The Peak Downs range appears to me to be an upthrow, long 

 posterior in date to the deposition of the Coal-measures, and from 

 which those rocks have been denuded, except in a few isolated 

 ranges, in which coal may still be found. The debris of the lower 

 seams are to be met with over many miles of country, containing 

 always the same plants (Glossojateris and Vertebraria). Near to the 

 Peak Downs, amongst the silicified wood which strews the plains, I 

 found a few fossil fruits of large size. One is depressed, or flattened, 

 at both head and stalk, as though the juice had been squeezed out, 

 and left an opening right through it; so that the seed- cases are 

 very plainly to be seen from either side. 



The fine black and fertile soil of the Downs is connected with the 

 Peak ranges, which were discovered and attentively examined by 

 Leichardt, who compared them to the igneous rocks of the Puy-de- 

 Dome. In my opinion, also, they are like those which have burst 

 out in the same country along the northern side of the Pyrenees, 

 described by Charpentier as consisting of ophite, weathering in large 

 dome-like masses. These, too, are comparatively recent, and, as 

 is well known to geologists, have upheaved the Nummulitic and 

 later Tertiary rocks along nearly the whole line of the Pyrenagan 

 range. 



That the outburst of the Peak range is posterior to the deposition 

 of the Coal-measures I had ample evidence at the crossing of the 

 Mackenzie, where the igneous matter covers the coal-shales con- 

 taining plant-remains ; and, on close examination, I found in the 

 lava a very perfect cast of a large mussel-shell, the same which 

 now abounds in the river. 



The long range of serpentine extending from Rockhampton 

 nearly to the Peak Downs appears also to be a comparatively modern 

 upheaval, and to have been erupted with such sudden force as to 

 have cut through the lower fossiliferous and auriferous rocks. Por 

 this reason but little gold has been found along the serpentine range 

 of Canoona. 



I also divide the quartz as belonging to difi'erent epochs. That 

 is to say, there is a quartz at the base of the Coal-measures, in many 

 cases of great purity, in which I have in vain sought for any sign 

 of gold; whilst the auriferous quartz is in upheaved beds, with 

 which the Coal-measures are unconformable, and contains the old 

 fossUiferous limestone ; and drift-gold is to be found where this 

 limestone and the accompanying quartzites and shales have pre- 

 sented their edges to destructive influences, 



VOL: XXI. PAKT I. L 



