112 ME. W. J. CLUNIES BOSS ON THE [May 1 894, 



writer possesses a microscopic section taken exactly across the 

 junction, and the contrast between the granite, with felspar but 

 nothing approaching hornblende, and the hornfels, with no felspar 

 but much of the green mineral, is very striking. 



Outside the altered contact-zone the character of the rocks varies 

 considerably. South of Bathurst there is an area of highly altered 

 rocks. These are mainly micaceous and hornblendic schists, which 

 in places contain felspar and become gneissic in character. Inter- 

 bedded with them are crystalline limestones, pure white or with 

 bluish markings, mostly rather coarse-grained, but often well suited 

 for ornamental purposes as marbles. These rocks are generally 

 nearly vertical, and often much crumpled. In places they contain 

 copper ore, which has been worked to some extent at a locality 

 known as Cow Flat. North of Bathurst similar rocks occur, but 

 they are, as a rule, less altered, many having the character of massive 

 slates rather than schists. 



The metamorphic rocks north and south of Bathurst are so much 

 altered that it is difficult to form an idea as to their age. Cambrian 

 rocks are known to occur in Tasmania and South Australia ; while 

 Lower Silurian strata are extensively developed in Western Victoria, 

 and, in the eastern part of that colony, some of the Silurian rocks 

 of Gippsland have been provisionally referred to the same age, 

 although it is admitted that the determination is somewhat doubt- 

 ful. 1 As the strike of the beds there is north and south, they 

 might be expected to pass into New South Wales, but hitherto no 

 beds of Lower Silurian age have been definitely recognized in this 

 colony. Some of the Bathurst rocks may eventually be proved 

 to be of that age. 



East and west of the town the rocks are less altered than on the 

 north and south. At several places the hornfels is succeeded by 

 spotted schists, very much like some of the rocks near the Skiddaw 

 granite of Cumberland, but the chiastolite-slate, so "well known 

 there, has not yet been found in this district. 



The spotted rock passes into silky schists, and these into massive 

 slaty rocks, seldom showing distinct cleavage. No fossils have yet 

 been found in the slates, although some of them look promising 

 and may repay further search. At Limekilns, about 16 miles 

 north-east of Bathurst, there is, however, a bed of limestone, 

 apparently interstratified with the slate, and this contains many 

 fossils in good preservation. It is a bluish limestone, about 50 feet 

 thick, the strike being N.N.E. and the dip W.N.W., about 30°. 

 but variable. Some of the layers are largely made up of encrinite- 

 stems, but others consist mainly of corals. Of these Mr. Curran 

 mentions Stromatopora striateUa, Favosites fibrosa, and Petraia, sp. ; 

 also a new species of PhilHpsastrcea, which has been described by 

 Mr. B. Etheridge, Jun., and named P. Currani. 2 There are several 

 other corals, including, probably, Favositcs gothlandica, and also 

 brachiopoda. The latter have not been systematically described, 



1 ' Victoria — Geology and Physical Geography,' R. A. F. Murray, p. 42. 



2 Eecords Geol. Surv. N.S.W. toI. ii. pt. iv. (1892) p. 166, pi. xi. 



