46 
GEOLOGY OF THE GLASSHOUSE MOUNTAINS. 
similar mountain features in the neighbourhood ol Clermont 
Ferrand in the Auvergne, and geologists have called these 
rocks domite, because of its affecting generally the form of a 
dome. This domite belongs to the trachytic group. It is 
rather an earthy paste with some scattered crystals of feldspar.” 
In August, 1854, Mr. Stutchburyf gave a somewhat detailed 
account of these hills, ascribing their origin to local metamorpli- 
ism induced in the sandstone rocks of the district by some 
deep-seated foci of heat, &c., subsequent denudation having 
carried away the imaltered material while it could not ahect the 
indurated portions to the same extent, and which were there- 
fore left undecomposed. They are regarded by the Hon. A. C. 
Gregory;|: as “eruptive porphyries,” and by the Eev. J. E. 
Tenison-Woods§ as “ prismatic basalt.” 
The ground traversed between the railway line and McGregor’s 
accommodation house consists of low sandy ridges, tea-tree fiats, 
and open forest country, rising gradually towards the Gympie 
road, where several outcrops of a fragmental volcanic rock are 
noticeable. Proceeding still further west, the scenery changes as 
the level country is left behind ; numerous steep ridges and 
escarpments of sandstone, with gullies on each side and covered 
by timber of large dimensions, run toward and parallel to 
the range until the basalt spurs of the Taylor are met with. In 
these gullies sandstones and shales outcrop, and numerous 
fragments, of silicified wood lie scattered about the surface of 
the ridges. The sedimentary rocks which are thus illustrated 
belong to the Ipswich beds, and probably rest unconformably 
on the schists which appear at the foot of the range to the 
south. An extensive view of the surrounding country may be 
obtained from the top of Beerwah, the highest and most 
westerly of the Glassliouse Mountains. Looking south, between 
the basalt range and the coast, the comparatively level country 
presents an unbroken line of horizon, except where the isolated 
peaks of the Glasshouses lying in that direction have broken 
t hrough the sandstone ; this plain, stretching some thirty-five or 
-Fourteenth Beport— in Legislative Council 
t N.S.W. Geol. Survey- 
Papers, N.S.W., Sept., 1854. 
islJa^e Burnett,” 
s Proc. Roy. Soc., N.S.W.’-Vol'. XXII., 1888, Hates 19 and 20. 
Bi 
