538 
“ After entering the valley of 'Welcome Creelc, it will be seen that the thickness 
of the Desert Sandstone beds increases somewhat rapidly to the westwards. At the 
36-milc peg their base is, from the Eailway Surrey, 318 feet above sea-level. Between 
this point and the Laura Terminus, which is 269 feet in height, the country is occupied 
by one continuous series of sedimentary rocks, disposed in a series of scarcely 
j)orceptible undulations, but with a gradual dip westwards. 
“ The total thickness of strata at the head of Buckley Creek is five hundred and 
twenty feet ; between the base of these and the top of the grits seen below the Buckley 
Ci’eek Bridge, 350 feet above sea-level, there is room for not less than five hundred feet 
of rock. The sandstones of the Battle Camp Range, which rise to a height of 500 feet 
above the beds at the 36-mile peg, are probably the representatives of the beds which 
occupied this gap. 
“ The Welcome Valley beds — by which term is meant the whole of the series of 
rocks between the 36-milc and the Laura terminus — thus occupy a position below those 
described as occurring at the head of Buckley Creek, and also below those of the Battle 
Camp Range. It would be rash to venture upon au estimate of the thickness of the 
beds of the Welcome Valley, for there has been no evidence brought forward to throw 
any light upon this point. 
“ The minimum thickness of Desert Sandstone lying above the 36-mile peg, 
where the Welcome Valley beds are first seen, is not loss than one thousand feet — more 
than double that occurring in the Endeavour waters. 
“ Another point which the examination of this district has brought out is the 
existence of a ridge running approximately parallel with the Normanby River north 
and south. To the west of this ridge was a valley or hollow in which the Welcome 
Valley beds were depiosited. Where the western boundary of this hollow existed it 
would be premature, with the meagre evidence before us, to state. To the southwards, 
however, near the head of the Laura River in the Balmer River waters, the Railway 
Survey gives the altitude of the base of the Desert Sandstone as being 1,100 feet above 
sea-level. 
“ A circumstance worthy of note is the entire absence of an ‘ underclay ’ or 
‘seat-earth’ from any of the Cretaceous coals of this district which have yet been 
described. The coals either rest directly on grit or very sandy shale, and one of the 
coals — that from Buckley Creek— has its base crowded with quartz grains. Some of 
the shales contain very thin laminss of coal, which are not continuous for any great 
distance. These peculiarities are due to the conditions under which the coals were 
formed.” 
In the Valley of the Little Kennedy, one of the heads of the Kennedy River, 
highly inclined slates are seeji on the left wall of the valley, capped by horizontally 
bedded conglomerates and coarse gritty sandstones, forming a portion of the tableland 
which has ali’eady been partly described. On the right wall of the valley the slates rise 
to a much greater elevation than on the left, and must have formed a portion of the 
shore of the waters in which the Desert Sandstone was deposited. The floor of the 
valley shows Bermo-Carboniferous rocks (including coal-seams) let in by two north and 
south faults between the two masses of slate. The Bermo-Carboniferous rocks, as well as 
the older slates, must have been covered unconformably by the Desert Sandstone.* 
On the Road from Cooktown to Balmerville, about four miles short of the 
latter, the base of the Desert Sandstone forming this extensive tableland is again seen 
resting on vertical slates and a thick limestone bed. The Desert Sandstone here presents 
* Report by R.L.J. on the Little River Coal Field, near Cooktown. Brisbane: by Authority : 1882. 
