758 GEOLOGY OF THE NORTH-WEST COAST OF TASMANIA, 



of bedding planes are much obscured. The country fronting on 

 the beach is mostly backed by basaltic rises from Burnie 

 to Messenger's Creek, where the altered sandstones and slates 

 take their place. These continue on both sides of the Cam and 

 up to the flunks of Woody Hill in high rugged ridges with wide 

 stretches of sand and shingle to the north of them. . They show 

 on the beach at intervals for some two miles westward, passing 

 under the basalt of Woody Hill, which comes down to sea-level. 

 They crop out again for about half a mile and then almost 

 entirely disappear from the coast-line for a distance of ten or 

 twelve miles. Here is the first appearance of the so-called "con- 

 glomerate" which, though hidden at two points by flows of basalt, 

 continues westward without a break to Table Cape, and occupies 

 the basin of the River Inglis southward for many miles. Em- 

 bedded mostly in a fine-grained mudstone resembling consolidated 

 till, but sometimes in a coarser matrix, are waterworn and 

 angular pebbles and boulders in infinite variety, and all derived 

 from rocks which are not now found in situ within many miles 

 of the coast. Among the boulders are occasional massive blocks 

 of red granite, and sandstone and limestone with fossil brachio- 

 pods of Silurian type, all of great size, which, apart from the 

 testimony of scratched pebbles that any one with sufficient 

 leisure might probably discover, are unmistakable evidence of 

 the glacial origin of the whole formation. East of the mouth of 

 the River Inglis, at low-water mark, there is an outcrop of dark 

 crystalline limestone strongly veined with quartz. The exposure 

 is not sufficient to enable one to decide whether the rock is in 

 situ, or is merely one of the massive transported boulders. There 

 are other outcrops along this part of the coast which may repre- 

 sent slates and sandstones of the ancient rocks, but* it would 

 require close and careful examination to separate them from the 

 glacial drift which is very variable in character. 



On the beach near the Inglis were found waterworn 

 pieces of a hard black shale resembling in character the kerosene 

 shale of New South Wales, which are probably waifs from coal 



