10 A. W. HOWITT ON THE PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY AND 
rated, and the planes of deposit can only be distinguished by alter- 
nating and undulating narrow lines of different colour. An exami- 
nation of the whole district shows, however, plainly that these in- 
clined and vertical strata dip downwards, becoming more and more 
altered, and generally end abruptly against the granite which occu- 
pies all the low ground and valleys. 
Thus in the Deddick River a contour-line which would separate 
the high ground from the valleys would also approximately indicate 
the position of the granite as below this line. Were the whole of 
the granite stripped of the superior strata without being itself de- 
nuded, it would present an extremely uneven and irregular surface ; 
for we find, on examining the streams, that in places the Silurian 
strata descend below the general surface of the granite, and are 
much contorted and folded back on themselves, while in other places 
we find bosses of granite appearing through high ridges of the Silu- 
rian slates*, 
The hard quartzites appear often to have marked out the ridges, 
as in Mount Bowen and Delegete Hill. 
Among the much indurated and altered strata occasional patches 
are found which have been less affected, as, for instance, the black 
Graptolite-slates of Deddick, in close proximity to the granite boun- 
dary and the larger area of Bendoc and Delegete, where are situated 
mines both in auriferous alluvium and quartz veins. So far as [ am 
aware, neither alluvial gold nor auriferous quartz veins have been 
met with at the Deddick River. 
This Silurian formation extends beyond the coast-range down 
the Goungrah, Bem, and Cann rivers; and gold-workings have been 
there opened. Little is as yet known concerning the geology or the 
resources of that part of the district; it is mountainous and covered 
with dense scrubs, but it presents indications of being generally 
more or less gold-bearing. I have traversed it in three different 
directions, and can speak to the difficult nature of the country. 
In respect to the other minor Silurian areas I need say but little. 
The general features are such as I have already noted. We find 
the same general direction of strike and high angle of dip, the same 
alternation of slates and sandstones with quartz veins, the same 
paucity of fossils, and the same intimate relation to the crystalline 
schists, the granites, and the older plutonic rocks generally, which 
I have yet to indicate more particularly. 
This formation has been regarded as probably Lower Silurian. 
It has so far proved almost entirely barren of fossil remains through- 
out the district ; and it is only to the east of the Snowy River, as I 
have before said, that Graptolites have been met withy. These, the 
apparent connexion of the whole series, its relation to rock forma- 
tions of later age, the high angle of dip, amd the universally indu- 
rated and slaty condition of the strata as compared with others 
* Accommodation Creek at Deddick as to the former, and Marriott’s Moun- 
tain at Bonang, and especially Mount Goungrah, as to the latter statements. 
t ‘Prodromus of the Paleontology of Victoria’ &c., decade i. p. 12, by Fre- 
derick M‘Coy, F.G.S., Government Paleontologist, &c. &e. 
