458 NEW SOUTH WALES. 
undergone, as shown in fissures, dislocations, decomposition, abrasion. 
We may next proceed to the igneous rocks, tracing out their several 
varieties and transitions,—their positions, as in dikes or layers,—their 
decomposition or waste by abrasion. These facts will prepare the 
way for various deductions relating to the geological history of the 
land in past and recent times. 
The results to which we shall arrive have been deduced from a 
study of the sandstone formation in the neighbourhood of Sydney and 
Paramatta; from an examination of the various rocks in the Illawarra 
and the adjoining Kangaroo Grounds, fifty to eighty miles south of 
Sydney, with a rapid glance over the country from [lawarra through 
Appin and Campbelltown to Paramatta; from an investigation of the 
coal formation of Newcastle at the mouth of the Hunter River, and a 
journey up the valley of the Hunter through Maitland, Patrick’s 
Plains, and Muswellbrook to Puenbuen, one hundred and twenty miles 
from Newcastle. As the time spent in these investigations was short 
—about two months—we can gratify but partially, in a geological point 
of view, the curiosity which so strange a land may well excite; and 
perhaps give increased interest to the results of some future labourer 
in the field, who shall make more extended examinations into the con- 
dition, causes and changes of its physical features and peculiarities of 
structure. 
Before proceeding farther, I may be permitted to acknowledge many 
grateful remembrances of kindness received wherever our explorations 
led us, and especially our obligations to Major George Barney, Sur- 
veyor-General of New South Wales, Captain Westmacott of Bulli, 
Illawarra, Dr. C. Nicholson of Sydney, W. Stephens of Puenbuen, 
Rey. C. P. N. Wilton and George Brooks, M.D., of Newcastle, Mr. 
Robert Scott of Glendon, Rev. Mr. Mears of Wollongong, and the 
Rev. W. B. Clarke of Paramatta. To Major Barney, Rev. Mr. 
Wilton, Mrs. Robert Scott and Dr. Brooks, our cabinet is indebted 
for large and valuable collections of the rocks and fossils of New 
South Wales. 
RELATIONS OF THE SEDIMENTARY Formations.—The relations of 
the several sedimentary formations enumerated are well exhibited in 
the district of Illawarra, as shown in the following cut, and also on the 
preceding map. Going inland from the seaport Wollongong, we leave 
on the shores the fossiliferous deposit of argillaceous sandstone below 
the coal. Approaching the Illawarra range, two miles back, we come 
upon the outcropping edges of the coal series, and ascending the bluff 
