17 
GENERAL NOTES MADE DURING A VISIT TO MOUNT 
SASSAFRAS, SIIOALHAVEN DISTRICT, BY MESSRS. 
R. ETHERIDGE Junk., AND J. A. THORPE. 
By R. Etheridge, Junk., Paleontologist to the Australian 
Museum and Geological Survey of N. S. Wales. 
The following “Notes” were collected during a ten days’ trip 
from Tarago, on the Cooma Branch of the Southern Railway to 
Mayfield, the residence of Mr. C. H. Roberts, J.P., on Boro Creek, a 
tributary of the Shoal haven River, and thence to Mount Sassafras, 
in the Parish of Sassafras, County St. Vincent. The rapid 
movements of the party render the “Notes” but imperfect and 
tentative at the best, but as such, it is hoped they may be found 
of sotye service to future travellers in that district. 
Geology . — Between Tarago and Mayfield the country is gently 
undulating, speaking generally, and but little rock is visible in 
place, the aspect of the ground, however, is that generally assumed 
by rocks of Silurian age, hidden by a surfacing of local drift or 
wash. 
At Mayfield the configuration of the ground is more rugged, 
grits, greywackes, and altered nrudstones being exposed along the 
flanks and summits of the ranges, and these I take to be without 
doubt of Silurian age. The average height of these ranges, taking 
the Mayfield Trignometrical Station as an example, is about 
500 feet above the fiat, although of course some of the hills 
ascend to a much greater altitude. 
Immediately opposite Mayfield Homestead pinkish ternary 
granite occurs in the creek bed, and is traceable along the alluvial 
fiat for some little distance down the creek. 
In the home paddock to the west of the homestead occurs a low 
hillock of ironstone. An opportunity did not permit of my 
ascertaining the precise relations of this deposit to the surrounding 
Silurian rocks. It may be a reef in them, or form a capping of 
Tertiary ironstone, un conform able to the former, and I am rather 
inclined to favour this view. In the Boro Creek, in a direct north- 
easterly line from this point occurs a highly altered white siliceous 
grit of a very remarkable character. The soil on the western 
side of the Boro Creek is of a very sandy nature, of that peculiar 
appearance assumed by drift derived from granite disintegration, 
and it is possible that a considerable area of that rock may be 
concealed here. 
The track from Mayfield towards the Sassafras passes over 
much of this sandy country, extending as far as the crossing over 
the Boro Creek at Virginia Water, the residence of Mr. Peter 
Roberts. Here a fine alluvial flat has been formed. From this 
point onwards rough Silurian country is traversed as far as 
