PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



165 



of trees, and to be covered over by a trap-rock enclosing upright trees. This 

 fossil wood is usually but little altered in its texture and ligneous qualities ; its 

 colour is changed from that of red birch to cocoa or lignum-Yitse. But some of it 

 has passed into jet ; and both the charred and uncharred woods have much bright 

 pyrites in them. The flora of this old land-surface resembles that of the present 

 day. 



This first trap is covered by green and brownish clay and sand, which are 

 succeeded by another trap, having a line of charred vegetable matter at its base, 

 and also having a similar covering of clay and sand. These clay and sand deposits 

 are regarded by the author as being of lacustrine origin ; the volcanic rocks 

 having dammed up the old river-courses that formed the gully-drifts, and caused 

 the drainage water of the region to be accumulated in lakes. 



The next deposit is a coarse ochreous quartzose drift, considered by the author 

 to be the effect of some sweeping deluge ; and this is also overlaid by a third bed 

 of trap-rock, with the charred remains of a forest intervening. This trap is 

 covered by a mottled clay of pure quality, also regarded as lacustrine. 



A fourth trap succeeds, covered by a superficial quartzose drift (of diluvial 

 origin, according to the author), and lying on one side of the schistose hills, which 

 are clearly denuded on the other. 



In the basin of the Yarrowee, which is covered chiefly with this gravel, the author 

 traces the run of the "gold leads" or old gullies, which have only an approxima- 

 tive resemblance to the ramifications of the present river. These ancient gullies 

 or leads had a very uniform fall, which, from the smallness of the contents of the 

 gullies, must have been as rapid as 16 in 1,000, while the fall of the present 

 Yarrowee has only a fall of 8 in 1,000. 



Mr. Phillips urges that all the basin between the gold-leads may be wrought 

 by the aid of the water power of the Yarrowee ; a thousand horse-power being 

 now allowed to run waste, which, by means of reservoirs, could be made available. 



The author adds that silver-nuggets have been reported on good authority to 

 have been found within thirty miles of Ballaarat. He further observes, that, 

 whilst surveying the district, oscillations of the sx>irit-bubble indicated a rocking 

 of the earth ; and that the country in places sounds hollow, like a wooden bridge, 

 horses even noticing it in passing. 



3. " Notes on the Gold-diggings at Creswick Creek and Ballaarat." By Mr. W. 

 Redaway. Communicated by Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S. 



Mr. Redaway noticed first the " bluestone" or concretionary basaltic lava at 

 Creswick Creek, which composes also the rough bouldered surface of the country 

 to a great extent. In the plains formed of this volcanic rock, small lakes or 

 water-holes, from 3 to 12 feet in diameter, are in some places frequent. 



At Cresvifick Creek the different diggings perforate varying thicknesses of the 

 bluestone, from 17 to 20 feet. Under this is 30 feet of solid clay ; then darkish- 

 coloured quartzose gravel, with abundant remains of wood, to a depth of about 80 

 feet; and under this the "gutters," "leads," or "runs" of auriferous quartzose, 

 gravel — or "wash-dirt" — are met with on the surface of the slate or on pipe-clay. 

 The pits vary considerably in the sections they afford. 



The fragments of wood in the gravel are of all sizes, from tree-trunks, 3 or 4 

 feet in diameter, to branches and twigs ; and this drift is throughout impregnated 

 with woody particles, giving it a black appearance, especially towards the bottom. 

 The cones of the "honeysuckle," or Banksia, have been found not unfrequently in 

 this drift. These are very brittle, but the wood is often well preserved. Thin 

 horizontal layers of very hard rock are imbedded in the gravel. 



Some of the " gutters" or " leads" were traced by the author on plans showing 

 their course beneath this drift across the present gullies and from hill to hill ; 

 especially the " Black Lead" and the " White Lead," underlying Little Hill, one 

 of them having a branch from under Clarke's Hill, and both uniting before passing 

 under Slaughter Yard Hill. 



At Ballaarat, Mr, Redaway observed, in a pit on Sevastopol Hill, two layers of 

 bluestone (the second bed about 80 feet thick) above the gold-drift or " wash-dirt," 

 together with stiff" clays and quartzose gravels. Here the author traced some gold- 



