535 
sTiales. The base, near the railway, is at an altitude o£ four hundred feet above the 
sea-level. In the distance intervening between Indian Head and the Normanby the 
coal-bearing shales have disappeared. The shales make their appearance, however, in a 
small synclinal trough seen in the railway cuttings near the thirty-seven-inile peg, at an 
altitude of about four hundred and thirty feet above sea-level, or two hundred feet 
below the horizon of those at Indian Head. At the eastern end of the section, at the 
thirty-sis-mile peg, the Desert Sandstone Beds rest presumably upon granite, which is 
seen in situ two hundred yards distant to the southwards. A ridge of massive quartzite 
is seen to rise from beneath the sandstones at tlie thirty-soven-mile peg. 
“A cutting to the east of Battle Camp Creek exposes a conglomerate, with 
pebbles of greywacke and quartzite, resting unconformably upDn the massive quartzite 
mentioned above. Tlie conglomerate is covered with four feet six inches of black shale, 
and that again by sandstone, the whole series dipping at angles varying from 5 to 
7 degrees to the east. Buff-coloured sandstones are seen to lie beneath those at the 
thirty-seven and a-quarter-mile peg. 
“ A cutting at the 37f-mile peg shows nothing but very false-bedded sandstones 
of a reddish-white hue, with a few ‘ false dykes ’ — i.e., fissures ^vhich have subsequently 
been filled in with sandy matter. Beneath this false-bedded sandstone lies three feet of 
shale, which dipis at 5 degrees to the west. This rests on a continuation of the 
sandstone seen at the 37i-milo. 
“ Dipping at 3 to 5 degrees to the north is a bod of black shale, at the 38-mile. 
At the 38^-mile this is underlain by greyish sandstone with ironstone nodules. The 
hills on either side of the line are made up of nearly horizontally bedded rocks. 
“ Coarse grit, conglomerate, and a thin bed of shale arc seen in the cutting at 
the 38f-mile. Some of the coarser grits and conglomerates contain kernels of shale. 
On the south side of the line, near the 39-mile peg, granite rises from beneath the 
grits. 
“About a mile and a-half south of the 40-inlle peg a bed of carbonaceous 
shale with coal streaks, crowded with reed-like plants, too fragmentary for determina- 
tion, is laid bare in one of the branches of W elcomc Creek. The shale has a dip) of 
5 degrees to the west-south-west ; it rests upon a bed of fine-grained sandstone of a 
greenish hue. A shaft has been sunk upon the shales, but apparently abandoned a long 
time previously.* A traverse from this point to the foot of the highest point in the 
district— a conspicuous hill two miles to the south— shows nothing else but well-nigh 
horizontal sandstones. The sandstone capping the summit of the hill is very fine- 
grained ; its mural face contains many small caves, which have apparently served as 
hiding-places for the natives. As viewed from the summit, the whole of the Welcome 
Valley appeared to be made up of similar bedded rocks. 
“ h'ine-grained yellowish sandstone, with a low dip to the west, is laid bare at 
the dOTf-mile peg. 
“The Battle Camp Range lies to the north of the line at this point. It is 
composed of alternations of grits and sandstones, dispioscd with a gentle dip to the 
south-east : one bed was found to contain annelid tracks (?). The summit, 870 feet above 
sea-level, is made up of a fine ashy (?) sandstone, which rests apparently conformably 
upon the other rocks. This ashy (? ) sandstone only attains a thickness of about forty 
feet, and is not continuous over a larger area. In its lithological characters it agrees 
with those occurring further north in the Cape York Peninsula. I searched in vain for 
fossils, annelid tracks (?) being all I could discover. (It was from the northern face of this 
See p. .532. 
