finish 5 oie 
) 
e Y 
Formations of New South Wales. 337 
Relatively speaking, therefore, the Cordillera of the Eastern 
Coast has not been subject to the changes which introduced the 
relics of a Tertiary ocean, At any rate, no evidence is known 
to me of marine Tertiaries on the lands north of Cape Howe. 
Another fact worthy of notice, as showing the probable ancient 
geological vicissitudes of Australia is, that the great Carbon- 
iferous series which is so prominent in New South Wales and 
in parts of Queensland, but which is less distributed in Victoria, 
and there only partially and irregularly as to the portions still 
remaining, has been broken up and carried away, so as to have 
left the various members dislocated, ruined, and separated in 
such a way as to allow no clear view to be taken of the whole 
till all the separate portions have been separately examined ; 
and to the want of this personal examination on the part of 
certain Paleontologists and others, who have never yet seen 
the Carboniferous formation of New South Wales, is to be 
attributed the perseverance with which they so long disputed 
facts as attested by geologists in New South Wales, who are 
familiar with the latter and with Victoria also. 
In consequence of the absence of marine tertiary deposits 
in New South Wales, and the occurrence of a more complete 
series of the strata in the sections of the Carboniferous forma- 
tion, there has arisen a difficulty in collating the gold deposits 
with those of Victoria; and, in this respect, at present 
upper deposits in the former province cannot be assigned with 
any precision to the epochs adapted by Mr. Selwyn for the latter. 
And it also follows, that his view of the distinct ages of Plio- 
cene auriferous and Miocene non-auriferous gravels cannot be 
tested in New South Wales; if, indeed, it has not 
been tested by the actual discovery of gold in the so-called 
Miocene deposits themselves as they occur in Victoria. 
far as is at present known, the gold is derived chiefly from 
_ Tera, and not accumulate the deposits in such low-lying exten- 
Sive regions as those of the Murray Districts. The same 
objection would obtain, on the supposition of gradual waste 
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