560 NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



I 



the different ranges ; and the condition of the granitic and porphy- 

 ■itic rocks, as they appear in Van Diemen's Land, is picturesquely 

 illustrated by the following description of the mountain scenery 

 viewed from the lofty, craggy, and precipitous battlements of Ben 

 Lomond. 



" The northern extremity of the mountain overhangs profound tortuous 

 abysses, and commands an uninterrupted view of Ben Nevis, Mount Barrow, 

 Mount Arthur, Mount Cameron, the northern coast, and the most conspicuous 

 peaks of the islands of Bass's Straits. 



" From the southern side is seen the whole eastern labyrinth of ridges and 

 chasms, the fertile valley of the Break o' Day, together with the beautiful out- 

 line of the bays and promontories of the eastern coast. 



" The central part of the mountain's top, as the spectator recedes from the 

 verge of its precipitous flanks, offers, again, views which have nothing in 

 common with those already described. The scene is here one of unbroken 

 solitude, silence, and desolation. On the bare earth, covered only here and there 

 with patches of snow in the midst of summer, thousands of prismatic green- 

 stone columns (of eight or ten feet in diameter) lie prostrate at the foot of the 

 traveller ; columns of gigantic order, chiselled by Nature, and raised by her 

 hands to this majestic elevation, where, overthrown and broken into huge frag- 

 ments, their ends project, over chasms 3000 feet in perpendicular depth. 



" From this table-land, however, of the mountain's summit, the fearful gorges, 

 precipitous cliffs, and inaccessible ridges of its immediate vicinity disappear ; 

 while the distant masses of the western hills seem blended or levelled into one 

 undulating valley, intersected by the windings of glittering streams of the valley 

 of the Tamar, and bounded, on the remotest skirt of the horizon, by a finely- 

 drawn chain of mountains." 



The metamorphic rocks of the district described by M. de Strze- 

 lecky consist of a small development of mica schist and siliceous 

 slate, together with a little clay-slate, all of which occur in vertical 

 strata, and occasionally flank the igneous rocks, the mica slate 

 being the undermost and being succeeded first by the siliceous and 

 then by clay-slate. Besides these many parts of New South Wales 

 exhibit metamorphic rocks consisting of different kinds of granular 

 marble and limestone, some of which are very beautiful, and are 

 available for statuary and other ornamental purposes. 



The fossiliferous stratified rocks of New South Wales and Van 

 Diemen's Land appear to be chiefly referable to the Palaeozoic 

 period. They form two groups, the lower including the middle 

 and perhaps the older Palaeozoic rocks of other parts of the world, 

 and the upper those of the carboniferous or newer Palaeozoic period. 

 The subdivisions have not been very minutely traced ; and although 

 of the main facts there can be little doubt, it is somewhat to be 

 lamented that the descriptive geology of the older of these groups 

 has not been hitherto so far worked out as to render it possible to 

 trace with any degree of accuracy even the position of the beds at 

 the surface.* 



* So far as one can judge, the rocks on the eastern flanks of the syenitic 

 chain occupying the western district of Van Diemen's Land, and those at Yass 

 Plains and Shoalhaven, in New South Wales, would seem to belong to the 

 older period ; but in these, and in most of the localities mentioned by the author, 

 fossils of the carboniferous series are chiefly prevalent, — Ed. 



