60 THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 
trast of snow-capped peaks. The Californians are proud 
of their State, and have done much to beautify it. There 
are beautiful avenues and well-planted streets and parks, 
and many even of the streets are park-like. This beauti- 
ful effect, with its sense of space, has been obtained by 
omitting all dividing fences. Certainly the Americans 
have shown us that the best protection against people is 
to trust them. 
The lecturer concluded with pictures of the magnifi- 
cent Mission Inn and the famous Magnolia Avenue, with 
its five miles of blue gums, pepper trees, and palms, at 
Riverside, Southern California. 
GEOLOGY OF THE COUNTY OF CUMBERLAND. 
(Abstract. ) 
By J. H. Carne, F-.G.S. 
The lecturer described the geological formations re- 
presented in the County, beginning at the oldest, reached 
by drill-bores, and in the Balmain Coal Shafts, viz., the 
Upper Coal Measures or uppermost division of the Permo 
Carboniferous. 
The lower members of this important system were 
briefly discussed before consideration of the geological sec- 
tion superimposed on them. 
The economic value of the Upper Coal Measures was 
depicted in the numerous workable coal-seams in the 
northern, southern, and western extensions of the division, 
The stratigraphic positions of the coal-seams—rela- 
tive to sea level and each other—were rapidly noted, ag 
the measures were followed from above, and about sea 
level at Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, on a gradually 
increasing southern dip into the deep depression under 
Sydney—nearly 3,000 feet deep—from which they emerge 
above sea level at Coal Cliff, about 30 miles south of the 
Metropolis, and continue rising along the face of the Coast 
Range to the southern limit of the division. 
From the Western Coalfield another great warp was 
explained, intensified by the monochinal fold’ beginning 
at Glenbrook. The sedimentation was described, and the 
effects of igneous intrusions on portions of coal-seams. 
