Journals of Australian ExplorationsGregory, Augustus Charles
History
Journals of Australian Explorations
Gregory, Augustus Charles
Australia -- Discovery and exploration
At 7.15 a.m. again steered east up the river, the country level and
timbered with stringybark, box, bloodwood, leguminous ironbark, and rusty
gum; the soil a red sandy loam, thinly grassed; at 10.30 a.m. came to low
hills and ridges of granite and porphyry, timbered with box, leguminous
ironbark, terminalia, and the grass somewhat improved. Altered the course
at 11.0 a.m. to the south to close in with the river; but after crossing
a great number of dry watercourses, and even steering west, only reached
the bank of the river at sunset. The channel was dry, and all the
vegetation had disappeared, only a barren waste of coarse sand and gravel
180 yards wide, with bare rocky banks, showed that it had once been a
running stream. A few small hollows in the rocks retained water from the
late rain, but not sufficient for our horses, and though we found a small
pool in the sand, it was insufficient for the supply of the party.
Encamped at 6.0 p.m. The geological structure of this portion of the
country is wholly dissimilar to any other part of North Australia we have
yet traversed. Granite, porphyry, and slate are the prevailing rocks. The
whole appear to have been subjected to considerable disturbance, as the
slate is much broken and contorted, and in several parts altered by
contact with the porphyry, and no definite strike or dip appeared to
exist. The porphyry is of a red-brown colour, consisting of grey paste
with crystal of felspar and angular fragments of slate and granite
sometimes one foot in length. The granite contains little mica, and the
quartz frequently is arranged in rhomboidal crystals nearly parallel to
each other; it readily decomposes, and from the predominance of quartz
forms a coarse gritty soil. Quartz-rock forms large beds and veins in the
granite, and has a general trend north and south. It often contains
crystals of mica, and therefore not likely to contain metals. In washing
the sand of the river near Camp 83, only a small quantity of titaniferous
iron remained after the removal of the quartz and mica. It was in this
locality that the Gilbert Gold Field was afterwards discovered.
Latitude by e Pegasi 18 degrees 25 minutes 33 seconds.
30th September.
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