Art. I.—WNotes of a Geological Trip over the Coal Basin of 
New South Wales. By Mr. THomas Harrison. 
[Read 9th July, 1866. ] 
I need not tell those who have visited the spot that the 
harbour of Port Jackson is one of the loveliest sheets of sea 
water in this quarter of the globe. It-is not, however, so 
generally known that there are many other inlets along the 
New South Wales coast line the features of which, although 
falling somewhat short in point of beauty, nevertheless bear 
a strong family likeness to those witnessed in the immediate 
vicinity of the sister metropolis. Each of these is distin- 
guished by bold beetling clifis, jutting promontories, is often 
almost landlocked ; and has one or two nearly barren but 
fairy-like islands reposing on its bosom. Such are Broken 
Bay, Shoal Haven, and Pitt Water. They are all, in fact, 
due to the same cause, that is, the wearing, by waves and 
other forces of the sandstone of the district into miniature 
eulfs and inlets, and are therefore found at intervals along 
the entire line of coast bounding this particular geological 
formation. This formation extends from Sydney inland to 
some little distance westward of Mount Victoria on the 
Bathurst-road. Longitudinally the same is marked upon the 
map affixed to Count Strezelecki’s Physical Description of 
New South Wales, as stretching from the north near New- 
castle to the south near Jarvis Bay ; but detached portions 
of the same rocks would appear to be found at points very 
much nearer to Cape Howe, since the Pigeon House is de- 
scribed by Mr. Clarke as being an undenuded outlier, resting 
as I suppose upon granite. As the widest part of the forma- 
tion is about its centre the configuration of the whole 
resembles an irregular oval, of which the conjugate and 
transverse diameters run respectively from Maitland to the 
Kangaroo River and from Broken Bay to Hartley. 
The line of route taken during the trip I am about to 
describe was to the last-named locality, lying about eighty 
B 
