PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
1G5 
of trees, and to be covered over by a trap-rock enclosing upright trees. This 
fossil wood is u.sually but little altered in its texture and ligneous qualities ; its 
colour is changed from that of red birch to cocoa or ligiiuiu-vitfc. But some of it 
has passed into jet ; and buth 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 ochreoiis 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 
Yjirrowee 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, th.at, 
whilst surveying the district, oscillations of the spirit-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 Crcswick Creek and Ballaarat." By Mr. W. 
Redaway. Communicated by Sir R. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S. 
Mr. Redav/ay 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 1 2 feet in diameter, are in some places frequent. 
At Creswick 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 di'ift 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- 
