594 
That the basalt is newer than the Desert Sandstone is shown by its level and 
position. The Desert Sandstone once covered the whole of this district, and it must 
have been removed by denudation before the basalt could have occupied its present 
position. A large plateau of basalt occurs north of Cania Station, on the eastern side of 
Spring Creek.’ 
The Basalt Wall which lies on the top of the older basalts of the Lolworth and 
Dalrymple area is about fifty miles in length from west to east, and forms the highest 
land between Lolworth and Fletcher’s Creeks. 
•1 “It I’uns along in an east and west direction, at a distance of from two to six 
miles north of Lolworth Creek. The basalt is highly scoriaceous. Everywhere the 
cracks produced m the rock on cooling are visible, and there are immense spheroidal- 
shaped masses in it, also produced by cooling. The lava must have outflowed in a 
semi-viscous conditmn, for the well-known ‘ropy’ structure, formed by masses of 
semi-Iiquid lava rolling over and over, is verv con.spicuous ; this structure is easily seen, 
even in hand specimens. The basalt consists of a groundmass of smaU felspar crystals, 
With spechs of augite (?) and magnetite. 
The basalt does not form a wall in the ordinary sense of the word— that is to 
say there are no perpendicular cliffs of it, but it gradually rises in steps, getting thicker 
and thm,ker as it recedes from the margin. Tt is destitute of any vegetation, with the 
exception of some plum and bottle trees and a few other scrub trees. 1 was informed 
by Mr. Clarke, of Toomba, that he had discovered some miles of well-grassed open country 
m the middle of this basalt. Its average breadth is about eight miles. Its general 
?n thn^Trict^^* ^ outflow of lava, and it probably represents the latest outflow 
It may be observed that many of the Newer Volcanic outbursts took place in 
the neighbourhood of areas occupied by the Older Volcanic rocks, or actually overspread 
the latter. Possibly the volcanic activity in some districts was continuous, but where 
It IS possible to distinguish between an older and a newer, the two may for the present 
be kept apart. ^ 
not.s W the 
notes oj Mr. A. W. Clarke wlncli accompany this work. 
The late Mr. Daintree classed f with the Pliocene certain alluvial deposits 
ZcrTbed--^'®^ ^“"P® stitch he' thus 
y^tiilst the recent alluvial deposits seem only to reward the miner in the 
immediate vicinity of some rich quartz reef or other gold matrix, this, so far as 
yet tested, yields gold of a rounded waterworn character, independent of any 
local source of supply. It differs from the first mentioned in the rounded character 
oi the contained pebbles, its interstratified white clays, and purer waterworn 
fi? . 1- ^***®^®^ drift were observed from the head of the ‘Cape’ to 
the Lower diggings; what had probably at one time been a continuous line of 
deposit having evidently been partially redistributed by the present watercourses. 
At the junction of Sandy Creek’ with the ‘ Eiver Cape,’ a well-defiued baud of rounded 
pebble-drift joins what may, for convenience sake, be called the ‘ Main Lead •’ this 
branch heads from the ‘Springs’ at ‘Talavera’s’ Camp, and keeps a course betwe’en the 
Cape and Sandy Creek until it gains the so-called ‘Main Lead,’ as before mentioned. 
^nce, following the line of < Gehan’s Flat,’ the ‘White Hills’ and ‘ Deep Lead’ (the 
+ EeZl B^bane: by Authority : 1891. 
Brisbatetby iuthorit^^^ Mineral Discoveries in Northern Queensland. 
