GEOLOGY OF NORTHERN QUEENSLAND. 
BY THE KEY. J. E. TENISON- WOODS, P.L.S., F.G.S., Etc, 
Read before the Queensland Philosophical Society, 
20 th December , 1880. 
Altiiotjgu the geology of Northern Queensland has occupied 
the attention of many learned and eminent geologists, we know 
as yet very little about it. This arises from the fact that so 
much of the country remains unexplored. The first observer in 
the field appears to have been Dr. Tit ton, who, in “The Appendix 
to King’s Voyages,” gave a list of the rocks collected during the 
survey. The list is of no value to us now, and gives very little 
indication of the nature of the strata met with. Many other 
observations were made by Stokes, Leichhardt, Mitchell, and 
others, which are not of much use to refer to. Mr. Jukes, in his 
essay on the physical structure of Australia, refers but slightly to 
Northern Queensland. The first systematic attempt known to 
me to give a geological map and description of Northern 
Queensland is that by Dr. A. Battray, K.N. In “ The Journal 
of the Geological Society for 1869,” at page 297*, there is a paper 
by that gentleman, entitled “Notes on the Geology of Cape 
York Peninsula.” He gives much valuable and interesting 
information about the nature of the country between Princess 
Charlotte’s Bay and Cape York. He also gives a sketch map 
dividing the rocks into igneous and tertiary, the latter being 
again divided into sandstone and ironstone. As much of the 
area was not then and is not even now explored, his map may be 
regarded as ideal only. The paper is an extension of one read 
before the Koyal Society in September, 1865. With many of 
the conclusions arrived at geologists will not agree — such as the 
evidence of upheaval which he thought he observed, and with the 
statement that the whole of the east coast of Australia is slowly 
uprising. In other respects the paper contains facts of con- 
siderable value. I believe he was the first who noted that the 
culminating point of the Cape York Eange is the Bellenden Ker 
Mountains, which attain an elevation of 5,158 feet, and decrease 
pari passu with the diminishing area of the land, as the peninsula 
is followed in a northerly direction. I shall show, in the course 
of this paper, that this generalisation must not be taken too 
strictly. The depression of the mountain axis is variable until 
Cape Bedford is passed, after which the decrease in height 
is very gradual up to Cape York, whose highest point, Cape 
Bremer, is only 400 feet above the sea. 
