3 
Deposits, Limestone Creek. 
here and there, on the crests of the dividing ridges, 
contorted schistose rocks protruding. These are both argil- 
laceous and silicious in character, and generally finely 
laminated, showing a dip of from 70° W. to vertical at 
N.N.W. At lower levels a mass of diorite is met with, 
presenting in the weathering rounded boulders traces of its 
igneous origin. The soil formed by the disintegration of 
the latter is shown to be very fertile by the rich carpeting 
of grasses at this place. So far as I could judge from the 
altered indurated appearance of the rocks at contact, this 
mass has been protruded, or i-ather intruded, from_ deep- 
seated sources along the line of section, and not, as might be 
suggested, either interhedded with the sedimentary rocks, 
or the remnant of a once larger mass intruded elsewhere. 
The rock appears to he a mixture of felspar and hornblende 
in-incipally. On the spurs descending the valley _ of ^ the 
Limestone Creek the normal Silurian slates are seen, inclined 
at high angles, generally 70' to W., and vary in colour from 
yellow to bluish grey — soft, j^ellowish sandstone, and 
micaceo-ai'gillaceous slate, thin bedded or finely laminated. 
On the creek flats are deposits of tertiary gravels, frequently 
auriferous, and which may hereafter he profitably sluiced 
for gold. Several of the western tributaries of the Lime- 
stone Creek are also auriferous, and one, Slaty Creek, contains 
titaniferous ironsand with cassiterite.* On the east bank of 
the creek is a bluffy outcrop of what appears to be thin- 
bedded blue limestone, the beds varying from a few inches 
to as many feet thick, and inclined at an angle of 70' to W., 
with strike to N.N.W., in fact, parallel with the slates with 
which they are interhedded. These apparent blue lime- 
stones, however, when broken, exhibit a crystalline, some- 
what saccharoidal texture, and vary in colour from milky 
white to shades of light gi’ey, and are found to be more or 
less full of thin yellow seams parallel to the bedding planes. 
The quality of this marble, on an analysis of hand specimens, 
seems good, yielding a small percentage of earthy matter, 
and a large percentage of carbonate of lime ; yet even where 
the beds are thickest these seams would probably deteriorate 
from the commercial value of the deposit. Whether these 
seams are in any way due to the percolation of surface 
waters holding colouring matter, such as one of the oxides of 
* Geological Survey of Victoria, Vol. IV,, p. 189. 
