294 THE DESERT SANDSTONE. 



overflow ; (3) hard sandstones and grey and blue slates, which 

 from their lithological character Mr. Daintree supposed might be 

 classed as Devonian. These beds were highly inclined, and were 

 supposed to be the underlying basis of all that part of the country. 



My own explorations in the valley of the Victoria River 

 confirm generally the correctness of Mr. Gregory's ideal section 

 as far as its leading features are concerned, with the exception 

 of some alterations in the details of the so-called Devonian rocks. 



Mr. Jack in his Handbook of Queensland Geology* devotes 

 Chapter ix. of that work to the Desert Sandstone, from which I 

 make the following quotation : — "This remarkable formation 

 must at one time have covered at least three-fourths of the 

 colony of Queensland, as well as a great part of South and 

 Western Australia. The waters in which it was deposited, had 

 for their eastern shores the cordillera of the pakeozoic rocks, 

 which look down upon the Pacific. The deposit filled up the 

 inequalities of the denuded surface of the rocks of the " Rolling 

 Downs •" while the Mackinlay and other ranges lifted their peaks 

 as islands above the waters. 



" The base of the Desert Sandstone on the western side of the 

 Cordillera rests unconformably on the "Rolling Downs" formation,, 

 at an average elevation of about 1,800 feet above the sea level. 

 In the south-western part of the Colony its elevation is probably 

 not more than 1000 feet. In the York Peninsula it steals 

 gradually downward, till it reaches the sea at Temple Bay, and 

 covers the Peninsula from the Pacific to the Gulf of Carpentaria. 

 In the east, important fragments of the Desert Sandstone rest, at 

 a considerable elevation on the Bowen River coalfield, and on the 

 auriferous rocks of Cania and Croombit. At Maryborough and 

 Moreton Bay, sandstones which have been referred to the Desert 

 Sandstone come down to the sea level. The formation has suffered 

 extremely little disturbance. It is almost always found in 

 horizontal beds, which form table-lands, with terraced edges. It 

 consists mainly of siliceous sandstone and conglomerates. Among 

 the sandstones thin beds of coal occur to the north of Cooktown. 

 A thick bed of coal or oil-shale has recently been discovered on 

 Bullock Creek, near the Northern Railway. The sandstones are 

 mainly white, but red beds are largely developed in the York 

 Peninsula. The latter form fair pastoral country ; but the 

 greater part of the formation justifies the name of " Desert 

 Sandstone" given to it by Daintree. It grows, as a rule> 



* Colonial and Indian Exhibition, London, 1886. Queensland, its 

 Resources and Institutions. Essays prepared by the authority of the 

 Executive Commissioners in Queensland. Handbook of Queensland 

 Geology, by Eobt. L. Jack, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., Government Geological 

 Surveyor, Brisbane, 1886. 



