24 A. W. HOWITT ON THE PHYSICAL GROGRAPHY AND 
taking a general view of North Gippsland it is seen that there are 
isolated patches of limestones which present perfeetly similar charac- 
ters as to position and lithological character, and, what is of more 
importance, an identity of fossil remains. Mr. R. Brough Smyth’s 
geological sketch map of Victoria well shows this. These limestone 
patches are usually found, as at Buchan, in the hollows of basins 
formed in and surrounded by the Snowy-River porphyries; at the 
‘“« Basin” and on the Snowy River at the junction of the Rodgers 
River, not far from Buchan, similarly situated; or, as at Bindi, 
where the basin is formed by granites, quartz-porphyries, indurated 
Silurian and erystalline schists, in fact the “‘ Lower Palxozoic 
rock-foundation.” At New Gellingall, on the Buchan River, the 
basin resembles that of Buchan. At Gelantipy, however, we find 
three small outliers of the Buchan Limestone on the summit of the 
tableland, resting on the Snowy-River porphyries, and covered by 
late Tertiary (Pliocene ?) doleritic rocks. 
These limestones are generally somewhat thick-bedded and com- 
pact, usually of a dark blue or blackish colour, and undulate at a 
somewhat low angle, but are in places seen to have been much 
folded at high angles. They produce a country of rolling hills or 
steep grassy ridges, with an excellent red soil, and lightly timbered 
with Hucalyptus and Acacias. ‘Sinkholes ” are of common occur- 
rence, as in other limestone districts, and the scenery is strikingly 
soft and pleasing in contrast to the harsh and rugged mountains 
which frame these basins. 
The age of these Buchan Limestones has been determined by 
Professor M‘Coy as being Middle Devonian*. 
At Buchan argentiferous galena and copper-ore, principally py- 
rites, has been found and worked. 
At Tabberabbera, at the junction of the Mitchell and Wentworth 
Rivers, I have found a group of strata which present features dif- 
fering in many respects from those just described, but which, from 
the fossils gathered from them by me, have been referred by Pro- 
fessor M‘Coy to the same age as the Buchan Limestones f. 
The group of strata at Tabberabbera consists mainly of more or 
less indurated or slaty shales, which alternate with quartzites, 
coarse sandstones with pebble bands, and has a subordinate belt 
of compact dark blue limestone. The fossils are found abundantly 
in a black shale adjoining this ; but the limestones have not as yet 
yielded any thing. 
The inclination of these strata is nearly as great as, and their general 
direction of strike and of dip approximate to, that usually found in 
the great series of slates and sandstones with auriferous quartz veins 
which are regarded as Silurian, and together with which the Tab- 
berabbera shales have been also folded. The extension either on 
the strike or laterally, I have as yet been quite unable to deter- 
mine; but I believe itto be great. I have identified this group down 
the course of the Mitchell River nearly to Cobbannah Creek ; to the 
* Jntercolonial-Exhibition Essays, 1866, No. 7, p. 327. 
t Report of Progress, Geological Survey of Victoria, No. 2, p. 72. 
