Page:A sketch of the physical structure of Australia.djvu/38

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26

the existence of coal and limestone (probably palæozoic) on the banks of the river Brisbane.[1]

Leichhardt[2] mentions the existence of coal on the west side of the mountain chain at Darling-Downs and at Charley's creek in lat. 26° 40', and also near Wide Bay on the coast.


D.—The N.E. Coast.

About Sandy Cape and Harvey Bay we have no account of the rocks on the coast, and Leichhardt merely mentions the occurrence of a clayey psammite on his track in the interior about those latitudes. At Rodd's Bay and Port Curtis, Capt. King mentions granite and sandstone as the principal rocks, and at Keppel Bay greyish slate, quartz rock and various granitic rocks.[3]

At Port Bowen in lat. 22° 30', my own observations on the N.E. coast commenced, and were continued at intervals up to Cape York and Endeavour Straits. All the hills round Port Bowen were composed of a heavy dull red porphyry like that of Port Stephens. About Cape Townsend the cliffs consisted of mica slate, traversed here and there by large granitic veins. The group of islands north of Cape Townsend, called the Percy and Northumberland Islands, are composed partly of quartz rock, partly of flinty slate, and compact feld-

  1. "Australia from Port Macquarrie to Moreton Bay," by Clement Hodgkinson.
  2. "Journal of an overland Expedition from Moreton Bay to Port Essington, by Dr. Ludwig Leichhardt," p. 17.
  3. See Captain King's Voyages of Discovery around Australia.