Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 35.djvu/55

Rh GEOLOGY OF NORTH GIPrSLAND, VICTORIA.

29

beds as a continuation of those of Iguana Creek, and therefore Upper Devonian, rather than as belonging to the Avon Sandstones, which are comparatively near at hand to the west.

The nearly vertical quartzites and thin slaty shales which, at Maximilian Creek, seem to represent the indurated shales and sand- stones of Tabberabbera, have been cut across by a very strong dyke of compact and, in some places, vesicular diorite. Possibly only as a coincidence this dyke sbows prominently at the two localities where the most remunerative alluvial gold-workings have been met with.

Proceeding up the Mitchell River to where it is joined by the Moroka River, which rises among the almost unknown defiles of the great mountain mass north of Castle Hill and Mount "Wellington, we find the picturesque mountain known as the Snowy Bluff, standing at the junction of those rivers. It rises immediately from the valley, first buttressed by rugged forest- covered ridges, then up to the sum 7 mit with a series of encircling precipices and steep grassy slopes. The height of the Snowy Bluff is about 4500 feet above the sea.

This, perhaps the grandest natural section in the Gippsland moun- tains, gave me the following section (fig. 10), which I have condensed in order that the features may be brought somewhat into more prominence and less space.

Pig. 10. — Diagram Section of the Snowy Bluff.

Mitchell River.

a. Slates aud Sandstones (Silurian ?). h. Alternating red sandstone and

6. Coarse conglomerate. slaty shales, with two felstone

c. Red Sandstone. beds.

J. Finer conglomerate. i. Melaphyre.

e. Ecd sandstone and red sandy shale. 7c. Coarse reddish sandstone.

/". Porphyritic and quartziferous felstones. I. Quartz conglomerate.

</. Yellow and red slaty shales.

We seo here on an enlarged scale the same group of strata which is met with at Tabberabbera, the Mitchell River, and Maximilian Creek. Of the nearly vertical slates and sandstones forming the basis of the section I can say no more than that they are evidently part of the " Palaeozoic rock foundation," and are not unlikely of the same age as the auriferous rocks, near at hand, of the Wonan- gatta, Wongungarra, and Crooked Rivers. The overlying sedimentary