6 
Sedimentary Formations 
Professor ZScumayer in 1S(>2. On Stli jNfay, 1 So 2, I mode the 
highest: point of Koseiuseo 4,077 feet above my then base, at 
3,098 feet above the smi, which therefore came out 7,175 feet; 
and in February, 18G3, Professor Neumaycr wrote me word that 
lie made the highest peak, in November,” 1862, 7,170 feet. This 
makes Kosciusco’s summit, above the j^osBing place of the Indi 
or Hume Kiver, at (iroggfan’s. 5,425 loot. 
To the northwards, the 1 ! Ith meridian limits very nearly all 
the high land of the East Coast to Cape Melville, whilst the 
142nd meridian limits to the westward the basin of the Darling, 
including part of the drainage along the Thomson and Barcoo, 
from the head of the Flinders to where it passes into South 
Australia on the 141st meridian. 
Thus, all this enormous drainage of western New South Wales 
and south-western Queensland is, as it were, bounded by ranges 
of high geological antiquity, the Grey and Barrier groups being 
of undoubted similar age to tlie mass of the eastern Cordillera. 
It has long been known that the strike of the oldest Sedimen¬ 
tary rocks through the Cordillera, in Victoria, as well as in New 
South Wales, is. generally meridional; so that in the former 
province the beds strike across the Cordillera, whilst in the latter 
they form various angles from parallelism with it to a tranverse 
direction, as the chain doubles and winds irregularly in its course. 
This is the experience of the Victorian Survey, and my own 
traverses across various points of the Cordillera in New South 
'Wales and Victoria establish the fact of a normal meridional 
strike of the oldest strata. So distinct, indeed, is this charac¬ 
teristic. that the settlers in various parts of this Colony have 
been accustomed to trace the direction of north and south by the 
strike of the slates, and are often guided by it. 
It sometimes happens that, owing to the high angle of dip, aud 
the effect of denudation on the overlying formations, the Cor¬ 
dillera itself becomes in places almost knife-edged, so that in 
New South "Wales it presents occasionally a watershed not 
more than nine paces in width ; whilst in Maneero to the south, 
and in New England to the north, it spreads out in a plateau, 
on which eastern and western waters rise close together and 
sometimes overlap. These different features have a variable 
geological value as well as aspect; for, owing to the strike of the 
older rocks, the breadtli of the Silurian formations, which, as in 
other countries, are repeated by recurring folds, may he more 
exposed in Victoria than it is in New South Wales ; and owing 
to the curve of the Cordillera probably the same beds arc traceable 
to the north which occur in the south ; as, for example, the* 
auriferous rocks of Omeo and Peak Downs, which are on the same 
meridian; and thus the meridional strike is exhibited along 
the north-east coast, where there are alternations of old rocks 
