533 
i saw in Mr. Webb’s possession, and at Coobtown, and wbicb may be presumed to b<ye 
been collected under more fayourable conditions than those obtained by me. Supposing 
the mechanical impurities represented by tbe ash, and consisting, in the case ot the 
Welcome Seam, mainly of siliceous, and, in the case of Pucldey’s Seam, mainly ot 
folspathic materials, to be lessoned by about two-thirds, the coal would be valuable tor 
steaming purposes. As it is, the coals burn well enough, but their high percentage ot 
ash would interfere with their usefulness as fuel. 
It is reported that in a well at Brown’s Station, about a mile north ot the 
northern escarpment of the Battle Camp Eange, or Tableland, grey shales were met 
with, which were supposed to belong to the coal-bearing senes of Welcome and 
Buckley’s Creeks. i ■, i li- 
On the left bank of the Little Laura, opposite Cobb s Coach-stage, while halting 
there on the iourney from the Palmer, I saw an outcrop of horizontal grey clay-shales, 
which I believed to be part of the Welcome Coal-bearing Series. 
Eogardiiig the age of these coal-bearing strata I could ascertain little or nothing, 
having searched in vain for any recognisable fossils, and found only plentiful carbon- 
aceous streaks representing decayed plant-remains. Mr. George Sweet, of Brunswick, 
Melbourne, went to the Welcome Valley in June, 1889, expressly to make a similar sc.arch, 
but was hardly more successful, although his collection included what could be recognise 
as a fern and some reed-like plant-impressions. The strata are characterised by a great 
paucity of fossils, which is itself a circumstance presenting a marked contrast to the 
Pernio-Carboniferous strata at Deep Creek, Oakey Creek, and the Little Eiver. I 
suspected from the first that the coal-bearing rocks of the Welcome Valley were part 
and parcel of the Desert Sandstone, representing, like the coal-bearing rocks on the 
north shore of the estuary of the Endeavour, a terrestrial or fresh-water phase ot the 
formation,* and this view^ has been abundantly confirmed by Mr. Maitland s recent 
investigations. . i j i: n i 
Mr. Maitland examined the coal-boaring deposits in the neighbourhood ot Look- 
town in the end of 1890. His observations, which definitely settle the question of the 
age of the deposits, are quoted below : — 
» The beds of the Endeavour Eiver, the ISTormanby Eiver, and the Welcoine 
Valley have been examined and described by Mr. R. L. Jack in the years 1879 and 188 
In the description of the latter, no definite conclusion as to the age of the Wdcome 
Valley Beds was arrived at. Subsequent examination show-s them to be ot Desert 
Sandstone age. • i -u ± 
“ Wherever examined they present very much the same lithological characters. 
For the most part they consist of coarse sandstones, grits, and conglomerates. Many 
of the sandstones in the higher portions of the series contain large quantities of haimatite 
in the form of irregular nodules. Fine-grained flaggy sandstones (with streaks ot coal), 
shales (some of a buff colour), and thin coals also occur, but they form a re a y 
small portion of the series. A fine ashy sandstone, similar to the sandstone described 
as occurring at the base of the Desert Sandstone in the Cape York Peninsula, near the 
Lukin Eiver, at Pera Head, north of tbe Archer Eiver and Pisonia Island, one ot the 
AYellesley Group, off Point Parker, is to be seen at one portion of Battle Lamp Itange, 
resting upon the sandstones and grits to be described below. _ Nowhere do these rocks 
appear to have undergone much disturbance since they were formed. 
“At Gupiiy’s Tableland, between Cape Bedford and Indian Head, thebase ot the 
Desert Sandstone, which rests, with a violent unconfor mability, upon the upturned edge s 
* Geological Observations in tho North of Queensland, 1S86-7. By B. L. Jack. Brisbane . by 
Authority : 1887. 
