48 
RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 
“On the Occurrence and Geological Position of Oil-bearing 
Deposits in New South Wales.”* In this essay Clarke correctly 
indicated the position of the Upper Marine beds at the bottom 
of the section, and remarked on their resemblance to the Muree 
Series of the Hunter River Coal-field, and on their supporting 
“ a series of coal-measures, which are capped by Hawkesbury 
rocks, all resting apparently in a nearly horizontal position on 
each other.”! This horizontility is very remarkable, and a most 
noticeable feature, and renders it still more difficult to determine 
the supposed unconformability, although its position may possibly 
be marked by the occurrence of springs. At the same time 
Clarke mentions that at the immediate junction of the Nattai 
and Wollondilly, the lowest beds (Upper Marine) are seen dipping 
slightly to the west. The highest elevation attained by the Upper 
Marine beds is five hundred feet he says, opposite the mouth of 
the Nattai; and this is above sea-level, not above the level of the 
river bed. On the Mount Queahgong section these beds seem to 
attain a rather higher level, in fact on the eastern side of the 
gorge the strata all appear to occupy a somewhat higher position. 
Spirifers and Stenopora , according to Clarke, occur in the 
Marine beds, but I was not able to visit the fossiliferous spots 
through want of time. At Singleton, however, on the Hunter 
River, Stenopora occurs in rounded bomb-like calcareous nodules. 
Now, in the Upper Marine beds, behind Queahgong House (Mr. 
Maurice Hayes’), on the western bank of the Wollondilly, heavy 
nodules of a calcareous sandstone occur, resembling cannon-balls, 
having nuclei of calcareous matter, but not Stenopora , or other 
fossils, so far as I saw ; otherwise the resemblance to the Singleton 
nodules is very strong. Lines of pebbles are also seen in these beds, 
and at times solitary pebbles occur in the ball-like segregations, 
although not necessarily central. 
No intrusions of igneous matter, as described by Clarke higher 
up the Nattai V^alley, and by the late Mr. C. S. Wilkinson near 
Mittagong, { in a similar series of rocks, were observed. 
Kerosene Shale has been found at several places in the valley 
in the Upper Coal-measures, but has not been worked successfully 
so far. 
The Rev. W. B. Clarke, speaking generally of this magnificent 
valley, says “Nothing can so clearly mark the origin of the deep 
ravines by continuous washings and erosions (probably after some 
dynamical action had fissured the country), as the fallen blocks 
of the plateau, and the pebbles which cover the face of the country 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1866, xxii., pp. 439-448. 
f Ibid , p. 443. 
t Ann - Report Dept. Mines N.S. Wales for 1881 [1882], p. 141. 
