45 
At McKirley’s Creek, near Crossover Creek, about 
seven miles north of the Main Gippsland road, there are 
found beds of clay and quartz drift, and seams of lignite 
(brown coal), overlying a greenish-grey decomposed 
vesicular basalt, resembling, according to the descriptions 
furnished, that occurring north-west of Melbourne in the 
valley of the Moonee Ponds. The area over which the 
lignites extend is not known. As the beds are of con¬ 
siderable thickness, though variable in quality, they may 
become of commercial importance wdicn the railway 
between Melbourne and Sale is opened. 
From Westbui'y to Rosedalc the upper tertiaries over- 
lie mesozoic carbonaceous rocks, but we had no oppor¬ 
tunity of examining the latter. To the north-eastward 
the mesozoic strata are said to overlie the upper palaeozoic 
rocks. The exact relation of these formations to each 
other has not yet been worked out; and the key to some 
questions which have perplexed enquirers for a length of 
time will be found probably in the area here referred to. 
It is only in Gippsland that these formations are found to 
overlap. Elsewhere they are separated by masses of 
intrusive rock. 
East of the great patch of older volcanic rock at 
Brandy Creek, and thence to Sale, we passed over loams 
and sands belonging to the later tertiaries. They are like 
the tertiaries of the Wimrnera, and the soil is nearly as 
good in some places ; but, unlike the Wimmera, the 
country is well watered. These tertiaries extend in an 
unbroken line from Brandy Creek (nine miles east ot 
Buneep) to Bam Head, a distance of 182 miles, and in 
the aggregate (including the Lakes) cover an area of 
2712 square miles. 
