Mines and Mineral Statistics, 
76 
old stream or lead with a thickness of nearly 300 feet of hasalt. In 
!New South Wales similar auriferoiis leads occur at Lucknow. Gulgon,cr, 
&c. As, therefore, these leads traversing gold-hearing formations 
have been found highly auriferous, it is not improbable that the 
jMewstead one may contain payable stream tin, provided, of course, 
that it has passed through stanniferous granite country ; however, I 
cannot speak, my examination not having (ixtended further to the 
eastward. 
Another small lead, covered with hasalt, occurs between IVTiddle 
Creek and the Macintyre ; it runs in a north-westerly direction, 
hetween two granite ranges, until it enters the Macintyre valley. This 
small lead lias not yet been prospected, and I believe it to bo well 
worth the attention of the miner. 
An interesting cliff section of basalt may he seen on Mr. Colin 
Loss’s property on the bank of the river at InverelL The following 
is a sketch of it : — 
Fig. 0 . 
a hy amygdaloidal hasalt, much decomposed, c, friable cellular 
hasalt, enclosing fragments of wood and pieces of earth, d, dense 
columnar basalt, e. volcanic breccia, composed of fragments of basalt 
of various sizes, embedded in an indurated volcanic mud, much stained 
with peroxide of iron, which im])arls to the rock varying shades of deep 
red and yellow. ^Ihis breccia is older than the a h r r/, and cvidc^ntly 
formed tlio side of a lull on which plants were growing at the time of 
the basalt eruption ; for at the junction of the hasalt and bi'cccia lies 
a thin bed of red clay, the former surface soil, iu which I discovered 
numerous stems of plants. Some of th(*so stems are in an u])right 
position, and even penetrate a few inches into the hasalt rock above, and 
several I found with tlie woody matter but little altered. Those facts 
arc very singular, as proving the viscid state of the overflowing basaltic 
lava, to liavo thus surrounded the small plants without destroying 
them, and how i*apidly it must, Imvo cooled. Another interesting relic 
of the newer pliocene period that tliis section reveals is the trunk of 
a tree, about 2 feet iu diameter, imbedded in the layer of basalt 
marked c in the above sketch. 
The wood, though much changed, yet retains its fibrous structure 
most completely. It somewhat resembles the stringy-bark, and may 
possibly b(^ a species vi' JiHra/?//)lus ; hut this is difficult to decide 
without the aid of the microscoj)e. 
go 
