Mines and Mineral Statistics. 
15^ 
Independently of this aiTangeinent the whole of the Central' 
area inside tlie Eastern Cordillera has a trend to the south and 
west, so that the waters collected betw'eeu 22^ and 37° s., on the 
east of South Australia, find their w'ay to the sea at the eastern 
corner of that province. 
AV e might naturally assume that one oi’der of deposits is to he 
expected throughout the Cordillera ; but there is a singular 
exception. AVhilst marine deposits of Tertiary age are found 
along the west coast of Australia, and along the southern coast 
from Cape Leuwin to Cape Howe, there are no known marine 
Tertiaries in any part of the Coast of IN'ew Soutli A\hilcs and 
Queeiisland up to the Cape York Peninsula; and the reason of 
this may bo, that, as indicated by plienomena before pointed out 
by me, but which on this occasion cannot he further dwelt upon, 
the eastern extension of Australia has been probably cut off by 
a general sinking, in accordance with the Barrier Beef theory of 
Mr. Darwin. This has some support from the fact that there is 
aj'epctitiou of Australian formations in the Loiiisiado Archipelago, 
Yew Caledonia, and Yew Zealand, in the latter of wliicli occur 
abundant Tertiary deposits. The intervening ocean may, there- 
fore, be supposed to cover either a great synclinal depression or 
a denuded series of folds ; but, as shown in 187-1 by the soundings 
from II. M.S. Challenger, this depi’ession is of enormous depth, 
in one sounding 2,G25 fathoms having been readied. 
Belatively speaking then, the Cordillera of the eastern coast 
has not been subject to the changes which introduced the relics 
of a Tertiary ocean, or they have been removed by subsequent 
sinking and denudation. At any rate, no evidence is known to 
me of marine Tertiaries on the lands north of Cape Howe, 
Another fact worthy of notice, as showing the probable ancient 
geological vicissitudes of Australia is, that tlio great Carboniferous 
scries which is so prominent in Yew Soutli AYales and in parts of 
Queensland, but which is less distributed in A'ictoria, and tliere 
only partially and irregularly as to the portions still remaining, 
has^ been broken up and carried away, bo as to have left the 
various members dislocated, ruined, and separated in sncli a way 
as to allow no clear view to he taken of the whole till ail the 
various^ portions have been separately examined ; and to the 
want of this personal examination on the part of certain Palaeon- 
tologists and others, who have never yet studied the Carboniferous 
formation of Yew 8outh AYales, is to be attributed the perseverance 
with wliich they have so long disputed facts attested by geologists 
in Yew vSouth AYales, vvho are fauiiliar with that Colony and with 
A ictoria also, hut who are ignored by the closet-geologists of the 
latter. 
^ 111 consequence of the absence of marine Tertiary deposits in 
Yew South AYales, and the occurrence of a more complete series 
