12 
with also a sketch of Mount Mulligan, as I saw it on my way 
through the bush from the Palmer. I examined it on the line 
of the dip, and had a good opportunity of studying the bedding. 
I had no clinometer with me at the time — in fact, I was too 
hungry to lose much time ; but I am sure that the conglomerates 
rest unconformably on the almost vertical slates. The chocolate 
coloured sandstones of the upper bed in their turn lie uncon- 
formably on the conglomerates. Mr. Jack is at present engaged 
in a geological survey of the Hodgkinson, and will doubtless bear 
me out should he view the mountain from the northward. The 
metamorphic schists of the Lower Palmer belong evidently 
to the same horizon as the slates and merge into one another. 
Eef erring to your question more particularly as to the axis 
of the Dividing Range, I have to say that, as far as I have seen, 
it consists of highly contorted slates and is unconformably over- 
laid by horizontal sandstones, on which no fossils have been 
found hitherto, but which doubtless are tertiary. The same 
series can be traced both by outliers and large ranges from the 
Palmer by the Gilbert and the Cloncurry to Port Darwin.” 
These sandstones here referred to are probably the same as 
the Dalrymple sandstones. They are in that case not tertiary 
but mesozoic. .Any one who would examine the extent and 
structure of the stone, as well as the way in which it has been 
denuded, would scarcely fail to see that it is a much older 
formation than tertiary. The plant remains found in them 
resemble those of the Hawkesbury sandstones, as I was informed 
by Mr. Jack, though I have since heard, indirectly, that fossils 
of a cretaceous aspect have been discovered in them by the same 
geologist. 
General Conclusions . — Though the foregoing observations are 
limited, from the scattered nature and the absence of any details, 
yet they are quite sufficient to enable us to make a summary of 
the geology of Cape York Peninsula. We have fortunately for 
our guidance in this matter the observations of Mr. Daintree on 
the rest of the colony, and it will be seen that there is a great 
similarity between all the localities. In fact we may say that on 
the eastern Dividing Range, from north to south, there is little 
or no variation in the geology. This may be summarized as a 
granitic or metamorphic axis with paleozoic formations on eacli 
side, ranging from Silurian to carboniferous, the whole capped 
by a horizontal sandstone or intrusive beds derived from ancient 
dykes, or tertiary basalts. There are no tertiary marine forma- 
tions of any kind known on the whole extent of the range. This 
is true of every portion hitherto described, and I have now to 
add that the Cape York Peninsula forms no exception to this. 
For the sake of comparison, I shall now give Mr. Daintree’s 
observations. He divides the whole of North Queensland, as 
far as Townsville, into a few distinct formations, thus : — Aqueous, 
including recent alluvial, containing extinct faunas ; desert 
sandstone, which he calls cainozoic ; mesozoic, including 
cretaceous, oolitic, and carbonaceous ; paleozoic, including Car- 
