New South Wales. 
7i 
Blue Mountains, and along the Grose River, the thickness of the 
series is very much greater than near the sea. Patches of very 
small area contain bits of Coal, carbonate of iron, and some¬ 
times represent miniature Coal Measures. 
Towards the base, bands of purple shales aro frequent, and 
ferriferous veins, with specular iron, hicmatite, ilmenite, graphite, 
and other minerals, sometimes occur. 
hi places, as about the “ Yellow rock” near the Upper Wollombi 
River, in Ben Bullen, and above the deep excavation of the 
Capertee amphitheatre, salt and alum are found in cavities 
formed by decomposition; and in otter places, as at Bundanoon 
Creek in the Shoalhaven District, at Appin, and on the Bullai 
escarpment of the Ulawarra, and at Pittwater, north of Sydney, 
stalactites have been formed under similar circumstances. 
There is an enormous mass of brown iron ore highly carbonised, 
partly worked at Fitzroy.ncnr Nattai, another on Brisbane Water, 
and a smaller, on the coast, a few miles north of Sydney, and 
other similar patches in intermediate localities. These arc in 
part associated with specular iron, which occasionally lines the 
joints of the sandstones close at band with well-formed crystals. 
The uppermost beds of this formation, especially where they 
become conglomerates, exhibit isolated summits imitating ruined 
castles, and have thus been traced by mo at intervals all along^ 
the escarpments to the westward of Sydney, from the latitude of 
the Clyde River to that of the Talbragar, and in certain localities 
within the longitudes of that line and the coast. In the deep 
ravines of the Grose and Bargains Creek, the one eastward and 
the other westward of the Darling Causeway traversed by the 
’Western Railway Line, the slopes are studded by fantastic pillars 
sculptured by denudation and decay into imitative architectural 
forms. Similar forms cap the extension of the coast range to the 
head of the Goulburn River. The tints arc poiJcilitic , darkening 
from exposure, and exhibiting imitations of landscapes sometimes 
of striking character. The semi-crystalline fragments of quartz, 
and the disposal of colours (suggesting the idea of the action of 
gases removing the ferruginous tint in places) have caused me to 
believe that some transmuting agency has affected large areas ot 
the Ilawkesbury rocks. The glistening of the crystalline quartz 
particles reminds one of the same character observable in the mill¬ 
stone grit of England. It is impossible to understand how consider¬ 
able masses of the sandstones could have received such a present 
structure without the metamorphism suggested; for the crystalline 
facets are quite unabraded and belong to particles that have been 
collected originally by water holding silica in solution. By washing 
in acids the colouring matter of the particles may ho entirely 
removed, and then it is seen that they are imperfect crystals. 
