519 
A.t tli6 inoutli'of Oxley Creels bold cliffs of "wliite sandstone occur wlncii extend 
away in an east-south-easterly direction. The cliffs here are about three hundred feet 
in height. 
“In the bed of White Mountain Creek, opposite the mouth of Oxley Creek, 
there is a bed of brown shale in which the plant Calamites * occurs in great numbers. 
Above the shale the rock consists almost entirely of coarse white sandstone, with layers 
of quartz pebbles, and also thin beds of shale and conglomerate. Oalanntes occurs again 
in an iron-stained sandstone higher up the cliff. Near the junction with the schists 
these beds are dipping S.W. at 25°, but further in the3' are horizontal. 
“These beds extend away down to Betts’ Creek, crossing the railway line at the 
range. They can be seen as far as eye can reach from llount Black and the range 
behind Mount Black. 
“ Wliite Mountain Creek has cut a deep channel through the sandstone from 
Oxley Creek to its junction with the Walker or Flinders Kiver, a distance of aboutthree 
and a-half miles. 
“ Following up Walker Fiver, the stream has cut a somewhat narrow channel or 
canon, two hundred feet in depth, through the Desert Sandstone and the basalt which 
here overlies it. The Desert Sandstone consists of a coarse, thick-bedded sandstone, 
with layers of quartz pebbles, beds of conglomerate, and thin beds of shale. The sand- 
stone shows false-bedding iii part.s. The overlying basalt is about 50 feet in thickness. 
“About two and a-half to three miles up the river from the junction of White 
Mountain Creek, the Desert Sandstone is seen faulted against the schists by a fault 
running east-south-east and dipping south-south-west. The schists and Desert 
Sandstone are both covered with basalt. The Desert Sandstone is bent up near the 
fault, and is dipping south-south-west. The section is well seen iu the bank of the 
river.” 
Mr. Bauds’ observations on this point seemed of so much importance that in J uly , 
1891, I visited the scene of his discovery with the view of settling whether the beds in 
which he found Glossopferis really belonged to the Desert Sandstone. 
About a mile south-west of the junction of Paddy’s Gully with Funning Creek, 
I struck Betts’ Creek, which I travor.sed for a little over a mile to its junction with 
Conglomerate Gully. The latter I identified from the description on page 10 of Mr. 
Bands’ Feport on the Cape, of a section of sandstones and shale. I ran up Betts’ Creek 
for about a mile further, and then returning to where I had first struck the creek, rode 
down the creek to the crossing of the old road and telegraph line from Capeville to 
Hughenden. Nearly horizontal conglomerate sandstones and shales were met with on 
both sides of Betts’ Creek for the greater part of the distance. 1 was not fortunate 
enough to find the “thin bed of shale full of Glossopferis leaves” referred to by Mr. 
Bands, although in several beds of shale I could see indistinct and fragmentary plant- 
remains, and the sandstones occasionally retained impressions of large limbs or trunks of 
trees. , 
The sandstone rocks are traversed by the Northern Bailway Line from the 152t- 
mile peg (from Townsville) to the 215-mile peg. At the former they overlie the 
auriferous schists of the Cape Gold Field, and at the latter they overlie the shales of the 
Bolling Downs or Lower Cretaceous Formation, in both cases unconformably. On the 
Blinders, as described elsewhere, they overlie the coal-bearing Lower Cretaceous rocks. 
There can be no doubt of the continuity of the Desert Sandstone over this immense 
area, and it must be accepted as an established fact that Glossopferis, which is abundant 
Probably i’3wisrf«»i. (B.E. Junr.) 
