2. The Crystalline rocks are observed gradually changing into what is called the Sedimentary rocks, as slates. Such a transition from the crystalline to the laminated form is by insensible degrees. The experience of the miner is often opposed to the theories of geologists. He cannot help noticing the different kinds of slates, as presenting proof of their being transmutations of, or some among the many kinds of developement in, crystalline rocks. There are slates as amorphous looking as any Huttonian can desire. Others are so silicious, as to be denominated by the New South Wales geologists, _Quartzites_. On the Bell’s creek the clay slate changes into jasper. The chlorite slate of Ophir is so full of quartz veins, and dykes and bosses of quartz, as to be called by Sir T. L. Mitchell, _Quartz iferons schist_. Instances are numerous of slate with embedded quartz, and quartz entangling slate. At the cathedral rock, near Specimen Hill, Bendigo, numerous veins of chlorite slate are seen running unharmed and unchanged amidst that huge block of so called, igneous rock. The same specimen of quartz has exhibited in different parts not only different colours, but the clinker, the calcined, and the transparent conditions. The Rev. W. B. Clarke, of Sydney, hints at the probability of quartz, greenstone, basalt, and slates, by the influence of segregation, chemical affinity, galvanic or other forces, being “derived from the same original source, and indefinitely varied in the order of their arrangements and relations to each other at different intervals.” Mr. Clarke’s observations on the Diggings’ ground, would seem rather to have confounded his geological creed. The absence of ordinary stratification, even in the holes, is a remarkable feature. The character of stuff through which we have to go on the tops of hills resembles that in the gullies. Though much of the soil bears evidence of diluvial action, yet a considerable portion clearly results from the decomposition of the rocks near. The great irregularity of mineral beds in the holes, no two holes being alike, would not present the idea of gentle depositions, nor are we warranted to assume volcanic dislocation. Such fantastic changes in the order and depths of these mineral beds, were compared by a diggings’ friend to the alternations of the eight notes of music in different bars.