1856.] WILSON AUSTRALIA. 287 



that side ; sometimes in the quartz, but more commonly in a coating 

 of clay between the quartz and the imbedding rock. I learned also 

 that the veins were richest near the surface ; and were found to be 

 poorer in sinking. 



Mr. King, at Goonoogoonoo Creek, showed me some specimens of 

 minerals of his own collecting, amongst which were sapphires, rubies, 

 and gold in quartz*, also some fossil plants. Conducted by Mr. 

 Moss (residing at Mr. King's), who volunteered to be my guide, I 

 went to the rock from which the fossils were taken, and found it to 

 be a shale belonging to the carboniferous series, and containing fine 

 specimens of Lepidodendron ; but the rock was too brittle to allow 

 specimens of large size being taken from it. 



According to Mr. Odernheimerf, "The dioritic and syenitic 

 rocks with their breccias, are in the gold-fields of the Peel the ex- 

 clusive bearers of the gold-quartz-veins, and are to be regarded as 

 the main source of the gold. They occupy the greatest area of that 

 district east and west of the Peel, from the Hanging Rock to the 



north." "The dioritic rocks prove to be the constant source of 



gold, even at a distance north and west of the metamorphosed area 

 of the gold-fields." 



I would not here oppose my observations (made during one week) 

 of the district to those of Mr. Odernheimer, extending through 

 fifteen months, had not my former experience of the geology of 

 gold districts led me to differ in opinion from the statements made 

 in the report above quoted from. In the first place I would remark, 

 that, as above stated, in this district there are imperfect quartz- 

 veins only ; and that the little gold that occurs (excepting the drift- 

 gold) is all found in these imperfect veins. 



If dioritic rocks be the source of gold, there is a much greater 

 abundance of such rocks nearer the Dividing Range ; but no gold 

 has been found in them ; and as to the extent of such rocks, I can 

 only say, that I have travelled down the bed of the river on foot, 

 and forded it twelve times between the Hanging Rock and the Peel 

 River Company's Works, a distance of about seven miles, crossing 

 the strata angularly, and I very much doubt that the igneous rocks 

 passed over in that space would amount to a fourth part of a mile. 



On our passage from Sydney to Moreton Bay we could see from 

 the ship that the rocks of the carboniferous formation were con- 

 tinuous along the coast ; and we several times saw what appeared to 

 be lines of coal in the sea-cliffs. 



The town of Brisbane is built on crystalline rocks. These extend 

 uncovered a few miles to the eastward ; and in the western direction 

 include Sir H. Taylor's Range. On the central part of this range, 



* See also Quarterly Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. x. p. 303 ; and vol. xi. p. 402. — Ed. 



t Report on the Minerals and Geology of the Peel River District ; Catalogue 

 of the Natural and Industrial Products of New South Wales, &c. (Australian 

 Museum arid Paris Exhibition.) [See also Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xi. 

 p. 399.] 



