Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 25.djvu/395

 Mount Bremer (409 ft., see Map). In all, the porphyry presents nearly the same lithological characters, and consists of a matrix of felspar enclosing numerous crystals of yellowish quartz. Wear Cape York it is laminated.

Besting on the eastern and western flanks of this igneous axis are thick and extensive strata of sandstone, doubtless continuous, like

Fig. 1. — Geological Map of Cape York.

the former, with that found further south in New South Wales and Queensland, and prolonged, with interruptions, onward to Cape Bathurst, where it forms a bold cliff overhanging the sea, as well as the main mass of the adjacent Flinders group. Here, however, it becomes lost, to reappear, it is alleged, in Papua, resting on the flanks of the igneous axis of that island, itself a continuation of that of Eastern Australia across the intervening strait which is only 90 miles wide. The nature of this sedimentary rock has long been disputed, the Rev. W. B. Clarke and his followers maintaining that it is Carboniferous (Palaeozoic), while Professor McCoy and his adherents believe it to be more recent and Oolitic (Secondary).

As yet no auriferous quartz or gold-bearing " gullies" or " creeks" have been found in or near the mountain-axis of the Cape- York peninsula, like those of the richly productive regions in Victoria,

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