Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 35.djvu/27



felt some hesitation in placing this paper before the Society, but I have been determined to do so by the reflection that it is clearly the duty of every working geologist to carry his contribution of knowledge to the common stock, however small it may be. I have also considered that these notes on North Gippsland may be of interest to geologists, not only because the district is little known, but also (and more especially) because, as it seems to me, the study of its geological structure furnishes the key to that of Victoria as well as to a great portion of South-eastern Australia.

In no part of this colony, nor possibly even of Australia, is there any locality where the igneous rocks generally (the crystalline metamorphic schists and their relations to the sedimentary strata, as well as to each other) can be studied more advantageously than in the district under consideration.

I may refer briefly to the manner in which the observations have been made, the results of which I have recorded. The nature of my official duties rendered it impossible that I could carry out any detailed survey in the usual manner, excepting perhaps in the immediate neighbourhood of my headquarters at Bairnsdale; but I found that it might be possible to carry on investigations on a