1888-89.] 91 



now into a broad valley behind the ridge of hills, a short run 

 brings the party to Stoneyford. Here they are met by the 

 courteous and energetic manager of the works, Mr. Lattimore, 

 who is ably supported by several of the engineering staff, and 

 the party proceed to examine the site of the great future reser- 

 voir. A broad, flat valley, flanked on either side by low hills, 

 and narrowed suddenly near its lower end, affords an excellent 

 opportunity for the construction of an artificial lake of large 

 extent, and across the valley a huge embankment over a mile 

 long is now steadily rising. It being Saturday afternoon, no 

 work is at present in progress ;, but the network of tram-lines, 

 the rows of tip-waggons, and piles of wheel-barrows, and great 

 heaps of stone, clay, and "puddle" show the extent of the 

 works, and the number of the army of men who on Mon- 

 day morning will recommence their weekly labours. A low, 

 swelling hill in front of the dam has half disappeared beneath 

 the attack of pick and shovel, and its steep escarpment affords 

 the geologists an excellent opportunity of observing over a con- 

 siderable area a section of the boulder clay of which it is com 

 posed. Below a couple of feet of fine yellowish clay, which is all 

 carefully preserved for making " puddle," there is a band, some 

 six feet in thickness, of blackish boulder clay, which overlies a 

 thick bed of typical boulder clay of the usual red colour, full 

 of fragments and blocks of rock of a variety of descriptions, 

 trap and chalk predominating. A member points out that 

 many of the smaller pieces of chalk have been completely dis- 

 solved away, and that 'in the cavities thus left in the tough clay 

 calcareous incrustations often occur, apparently the result of 

 precipitation of the calcium carbonate held in solution by per- 

 colating water. Some small fragments of the well-known sili- 

 cified wood of Antrim are found in the Boulder Clay, and on 

 the bank near at hand some fine pieces of the same material, 

 found in the excavations, are inspected. Nodules of iron-stone, 

 derived from the basaltic formation of Antrim, are present in 

 abundance, some of them yielding very perfect impressions of 

 leaves and twigs belonging to the rich Tertiary flora which the 



