IRON ORE AND COAL DEPOSITS AT WALLERA- 

 ¥ANG, NEW SOUTH WALES. 



By Phofessor LivEiisiDaE, IlNivEEsiTr of Sydney. 



l^Eead before the Royal Society, 9th December, 1874.] 



Many are probably well aware that there are large deposits of 

 iron ores and extensive beds of coal in the neighbourhood of 

 AVallerawang ; but comparatively few, perhaps, are in possession 

 of any very definite information concerning t'lem. I therefore 

 beg to lay before you the substance of some notes, taken during 

 a brief visit which I made in the early part of iVugust last, and 

 the results of my subsequent examination of the samples of the 

 ores and coals which I then collected. 



I much regret that I cannot afford any general and compre- 

 hensive account of the geology of the district; and that it is 

 only in my power to speak definitely upon the actual deposits of 

 iron ore, coal, and the closely associated limestone. Por, owing 

 to an unfortunate accident which I met with to my foot, Avithin 

 a few days after my arrival at Wallerawang, I was entirely 

 prevented from making any detailed investigation of the various 

 strata and deposits other than of those which follow. 



I very much regret too that I had to relinquish the idea of 

 working out the geological section of the district ; but as Mr. 

 Chas. Wilkinson, the Geological Surveyor recently appointed by 

 the Grovernment, is now engaged making a survey of the district, 

 we shall probably soon be in possession of a complete report upon 

 the whole of the coal measures and iron deposits of this area, 

 and in a much fuller and more detailed form than I could 

 possibly have hoped to have worked it out in the time at my 

 disposal, consisting as it does merely of short intervals of 

 leisure. 



"Wallerawang is distant from Sydney some 105 miles, on the 

 western line of railway. 



The township and station of that name is situated on a " drift" 

 composed of pebbles disseminated through a soft argillaceous 

 cement or clay. The enclosed pebbles consist principally of 

 rolled fragments of quartz, jasper, flinty-slate, argillaceous sand- 

 stone, and other substances. On the whole, this drift bears a 



