(*Footnote. Dict. Class. d' Hist. Nat. tome 4 page 395 et tome 5 page 216.)

(**Footnote. Dict. Class. d'Hist. Nat. tome 6 page 208.)

To the earliest of the opinions here quoted, that which considers the female flower of Coniferae and Cycadeae as a naked pistillum, there are two principal objections. The first of these arises from the perforation of the pistillum, and the exposure of that point of the ovulum where the embryo is formed to the direct action of the pollen; the second from the too great simplicity of structure of the supposed ovulum, which, I have shown, accords better with that of the nucleus as existing in ordinary cases.

To the opinions of MM. Richard and Mirbel, the first objection does not apply, but the second acquires such additional weight, as to render those opinions much less probable, it seems to me, than that which I have endeavoured to support.

In supposing the correctness of this opinion to be admitted, a question connected with it, and of some importance, would still remain, namely, whether in Cycadeae and Coniferae the ovula are produced on an ovarium of reduced functions and altered appearance, or on a rachis or receptacle. In other words, in employing the language of an hypothesis, which, with some alterations, I have elsewhere attempted to explain and defend, respecting the formation of the sexual organs in Phaenogamous plants,* whether the ovula in these two families originate in a modified leaf, or proceed directly from the stem.

(*Footnote. Linnean Society Transactions volume 13 page 211.)

Were I to adopt the former supposition, or that best agreeing with the hypothesis in question, I should certainly apply it, in the first place, to Cycas, in which the female spadix bears so striking a resemblance to a partially altered frond or leaf, producing marginal ovula in one part, and in another being divided into segments, in some cases nearly resembling those of the ordinary frond.

But the analogy of the female spadix of Cycas to that of Zamia is sufficiently obvious; and from the spadix of Zamia to the fruit-bearing squama of Coniferae, strictly so called, namely, of Agathis or Dammara, Cunninghamia, Pinus, and even Araucaria, the transition is not difficult. This view is applicable, though less manifestly, also to Cupressinae; and might even be extended to Podocarpus and Dacrydium. But the structure of these two genera admits likewise of another explanation, to which I have already adverted.

If, however, the ovula in Cycadeae and Coniferae be really produced on the surface of an ovarium, it might, perhaps, though not necessarily, be expected that their male flowers should differ from those of all other phaenogamous plants, and in this difference exhibit some analogy to the structure of the female flower. But in Cycadeae, at least, and especially in Zamia, the resemblance between the male and female spadices is so great, that if the female be analogous to an ovarium, the partial male spadix must be considered as a single anthera, producing on its surface either naked grains of pollen, or pollen subdivided into masses, each furnished with its proper membrane.

Both these views may at present, perhaps, appear equally paradoxical; yet the former was entertained by Linnaeus, who expresses himself on the subject in the following terms, Pulvis floridus in Cycade minime pro Antheris agnoscendus est sed pro nudo polline, quod unusquisque qui unquam pollen antherarum in plantis examinavit fatebitur.* That this opinion, so confidently held by Linnaeus, was never adopted by any other botanist, seems in part to have arisen from his having extended it to dorsiferous Ferns. Limited to Cycadeae, however, it does not appear to me so very improbable, as to deserve to be rejected without examination. It receives, at least, some support from the separation, in several cases, especially in the American Zamiae, of the grains into two distinct, and sometimes nearly marginal, masses, representing, as it may be supposed, the lobes of an anthera; and also from their approximation in definite numbers, generally in fours, analogous to the quaternary union of the grains of pollen, not unfrequent in the antherae of several other families of plants. The great size of the supposed grains of pollen, with the thickening and regular bursting of their membrane, may be said to be circumstances obviously connected with their production and persistence on the surface of an anthera, distant from the female flower; and with this economy, a corresponding enlargement of the contained particles or fovilla might also be expected. On examining these particles, however, I find them not only equal in size to the grains of pollen of many antherae, but, being elliptical and marked on one side with a longitudinal furrow, they have that form which is one of the most common in the simple pollen of phaenogamous plants. To suppose, therefore, merely on the grounds already stated, that these particles are analogous to the fovilla, and the containing organs to the grains of pollen in antherae of the usual structure, would be entirely gratuitous. It is, at the same time, deserving of remark, that were this view adopted on more satisfactory grounds, a corresponding development might then be said to exist in the essential parts of the male and female organs. The increased development in the ovulum would not consist so much in the unusual form and thickening of the coat, a part of secondary importance, and whose nature is disputed, as in the state of the nucleus of the seed, respecting which there is no difference of opinion; and where the plurality of embryos, or at least the existence and regular arrangement of the cells in which they are formed, is the uniform structure in the family.

(*Footnote. Mem. de l'Acad. des Scien. de Paris 1775 page 518.)

The second view suggested, in which the anthera in Cycadeae is considered as producing on its surface an indefinite number of pollen masses, each enclosed in its proper membrane, would derive its only support from a few remote analogies: as from those antherae, whose loculi are sub-divided into a definite, or more rarely an indefinite, number of cells, and especially from the structure of the stamina of Viscum album.

I may remark, that the opinion of M. Richard,* who considers these grains, or masses, as unilocular antherae, each of which constitutes a male flower, seems to be attended with nearly equal difficulties.

(*Footnote. Dict. Class. d'Hist. Nat. tome 5 page 216.)

The analogy between the male and female organs in Coniferae, the existence of an open ovarium being assumed, is at first sight more apparent than in Cycadeae. In Coniferae, however, the pollen is certainly not naked, but is enclosed in a membrane similar to the lobe of an ordinary anthera. And in those genera in which each squama of the amentum produces two marginal lobes only, as Pinus, Podocarpus, Dacrydium, Salisburia, and Phyllocladus, it nearly resembles the more general form of the antherae in other Phaenogamous plants. But the difficulty occurs in those genera which have an increased number of lobes on each squama, as Agathis and Araucaria, where their number is considerable and apparently indefinite, and more particularly still in Cunninghamia, or Belis,* in which the lobes, though only three in number, agree in this respect, as well as in insertion and direction, with the ovula. The supposition, that in such cases all the lobes of each squama are cells of one and the same anthera, receives but little support either from the origin and arrangement of the lobes themselves, or from the structure of other phaenogamous plants: the only cases of apparent, though doubtful, analogy that I can at present recollect occurring in Aphyteia, and perhaps in some Cucurbitaceae.

(*Footnote. In communicating specimens of this plant to the late M. Richard, for his intended monograph of Coniferae, I added some remarks on its structure, agreeing with those here made. I at the same time requested that, if he objected to Mr. Salisbury's Belis as liable to be confounded with Bellis, the genus might be named Cunninghamia, to commemorate the merits of Mr. James Cunningham, an excellent observer in his time, by whom this plant was discovered; and in honour of Mr. Allan Cunningham, the very deserving botanist who accompanied Mr. Oxley in his first expedition into the interior of New South Wales, and Captain King in all his voyages of survey of the Coasts of New Holland.)

That part of my subject, therefore, which relates to the analogy between the male and female flowers in Cycadeae and Coniferae, I consider the least satisfactory, both in regard to the immediate question of the existence of an anomalous ovarium in these families, and to the hypothesis repeatedly referred to, of the origin of the sexual organs of all phaenogamous plants.

In concluding this digression, I have to express my regret that it should have so far exceeded the limits proper for its introduction into the present work. In giving an account, however, of the genus of plants to which it is annexed, I had to describe a structure, of whose nature and importance it was necessary I should show myself aware; and circumstances have occurred while I was engaged in preparing this account, which determined me to enter much more fully into the subject than I had originally intended.

...

APPENDIX C.

AN ACCOUNT OF SOME GEOLOGICAL SPECIMENS, COLLECTED BY CAPTAIN P.P. KING, IN HIS SURVEY OF THE COASTS OF AUSTRALIA, AND BY ROBERT BROWN, ESQUIRE, ON THE SHORES OF THE GULF OF CARPENTARIA, DURING THE VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN FLINDERS.

BY WILLIAM HENRY FITTON, M.D., F.R.S., V.P.G.S.

[READ BEFORE THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON, 4TH NOVEMBER, 1825.]

The following enumeration of specimens from the coasts of Australia, commences, with the survey of Captain King, on the eastern shore, about the latitude of twenty-two degrees, proceeding northward and westward: and as the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria, previously surveyed by Captain Flinders, were passed over by Captain King, Mr. Brown, who accompanied the former, has been so good as to allow the specimens collected by himself in that part of New Holland, to supply the chasm which would otherwise have existed in the series. Part of the west and north-western coast, examined by Captain King, having been previously visited by the French voyagers, under Captain Baudin, I was desirous of obtaining such information as could be derived from the specimens collected during that expedition, and now remaining at Paris; although I was aware that the premature death of the principal mineralogist, and other unfavourable circumstances, had probably diminished their value:* But the collection from New Holland, at the school of Mines, with a list of which I have been favoured through the kindness of Mr. Brochant de Villiers, relates principally to Van Diemen's Land; and that of the Jardin du Roi, which Mr. Constant Prevost has obliged me with an account of, does not afford the information I had hoped for. I have availed myself of the notices relating to Physical Geography and Geology, which are dispersed through the published accounts of Captain Flinders',** and Baudin's Voyages;*** and these, with the collections above alluded to, form, I believe, the only sources of information at present existing in Europe, respecting the geological structure and productions of the north and western coasts of Australia.

(*Footnote. M. Depuch, the mineralogist, died during the progress of the voyage, in 1803; and, unfortunately, none of his manuscripts were preserved. M. Peron, the zoologist, after publishing, in 1807, the first volume of the account of the expedition, died in 1810, before the appearance of the second volume. Voyage etc. 1 page 417, 418; and 2 page 163.)

(**Footnote. A Voyage to Terra Australis, etc., in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803, by Matthew Flinders, Commander of the Investigator. Two volumes quarto with an atlas folio; London 1814.)

(***Footnote. Voyage de Decouverte aux Terres Australes etc. Tome 1 redige par M. F. Peron, naturaliste de l'Expedition, Paris 1807. Tome 2 redige par M. Peron et M. L. Freycinet 1816. A third volume of this work, under the title of Navigation et Geographie, was published by Capt. Freycinet in 1815. It contains a brief and clear account of the proceedings of the expedition; and affords some particulars connected with the physical geography of the places described, which are not to be found in the other volumes.)

In order to avoid the interruption which would be occasioned by detail, I shall prefix to the list of specimens in Captain King's and Mr. Brown's collections, a general sketch of the coast from whence they come, deduced, principally, from the large charts,* and from the narratives of Captains Flinders and King, with a summary of the geological information derived from the specimens. But I have thought it necessary to subjoin a more detailed list of the specimens themselves; on account of the great distance from each other of many of the places where they were found, and of the general interest attached to the productions of a country so very remote, of which the greater part is not likely to be often visited by geologists. The situation of such of the places mentioned, as are not to be found in the reduced chart annexed to the present publication, will be sufficiently indicated by the names of the adjacent places.

(*Footnote. These charts have been published by the Admiralty for general sale.)

GENERAL SKETCH OF THE COAST.

The North-eastern coast of New South Wales, from the latitude of about 28 degrees, has a direction from south-east to north-west; and ranges of mountains are visible from the sea, with little interruption, as far north as Cape Weymouth, between the latitude of 12 and 13 degrees. From within Cape Palmerston, west of the Northumberland Islands, near the point where Captain King began his surveys, a high and rocky range, of very irregular outline, and apparently composed of primitive rocks, is continued for more than one hundred and fifty miles, without any break; and after a remarkable opening, about the latitude of 21 degrees, is again resumed. Several of the summits, visible from the sea, in the front of this range, are of considerable elevation: Mount Dryander, on the promontory which terminates in Cape Gloucester, being more than four thousand five hundred feet high. Mount Eliot, with a peaked summit, a little to the south of Cape Cleveland, is visible at twenty-five leagues distance; and Mount Hinchinbrook, immediately upon the shore, south of Rockingham Bay, is more than two thousand feet high. From the south of Cape Grafton to Cape Tribulation, precipitous hills, bordered by low land, form the coast; but the latter Cape itself consists of a lofty group, with several peaks, the highest of which is visible from the sea at twenty leagues. The heights from thence towards the north decline gradually, as the mountainous ranges approach the shore, which they join at Cape Weymouth, about latitude 12 degrees; and from that point northward, to Cape York, the land in general is comparatively low, nor do any detached points of considerable elevation appear there. But about midway between Cape Grenville and Cape York, on the mainland south-west of Cairncross Island, a flat summit called Pudding-Pan Hill is conspicuous; and its shape, which differs from that of the hills on the east coast in general, remarkably resembles that of the mountains of the north and west coasts, to which names expressing their form have been applied.*

(*Footnote. Jane's Table-Land, south-east of Princess Charlotte's Bay (about latitude 14 degrees 30 minutes) and Mount Adolphus, in one of the islands (about latitude 10 degrees 40 minutes) off Cape York, have also flat summits. King manuscripts.)

The line of the coast above described retires at a point which corresponds with the decline of its level; and immediately on the north of Cape Melville is thrown back to the west; so that the high land about that Cape stands out like a shoulder, more than forty miles beyond the coastline between Princess Charlotte's Bay and the north-eastern point of Australia.

The land near Cape York is not more than four or five hundred feet high, and the islands off that point are nearly of the same elevation.

The bottom of several of the bays, on the eastern coast, not having been explored, it is still probable that rivers, or considerable mountain streams, may exist there.

Along this eastern line of shore, granite has been found throughout a space of nearly five hundred miles; at Cape Cleveland; Cape Grafton; Endeavour River; Lizard Island; and at Clack's Island, on the north-west of the rocky mass which forms Cape Melville. And rocks of the trap formation have been obtained in three detached points among the islands off the shore; in the Percy Isles, about latitude 21 degrees 40 minutes; Sunday Island, north of Cape Grenville, about latitude 12 degrees; and in Good's Island, on the north-west of Cape York, latitude 10 degrees 34 minutes.

The Gulf of Carpentaria having been fully examined by Captain Flinders, was not visited by Captain King; but the following account has been deduced from the voyage and charts of the former, combined with the specimens collected by Mr. Brown, who has also favoured me with an extract from the notes taken by himself on that part of the coast.

The land, on the east and south of the Gulf of Carpentaria, is so low, that for a space of nearly six hundred miles—from Endeavour Strait to a range of hills on the mainland, west of Wellesley Islands, at the bottom of the gulf—no part of the coast is higher than a ship's masthead.* Some of the land in Wellesley islands is higher than the main; but the largest island is, probably, not more than one hundred and fifty feet in height;** and low-wooded hills occur on the mainland, from thence to Sir Edward Pellew's group. The rock observed on the shore at Coen River, the only point on the eastern side of the Gulf where Captain Flinders landed, was calcareous sandstone of recent concretional formation.

(*Footnote. Flinders Charts Plate 14.)

(**Footnote. Flinders Volume 2 page 158.)

In Sweer's Island, one of Wellesley's Isles, a hill of about fifty or sixty feet in height was covered with a sandy calcareous stone, having the appearance of concretions rising irregularly about a foot above the general surface, without any distinct ramifications. The specimens from this place have evidently the structure of stalactites, which seem to have been formed in sand; and the reddish carbonate of lime, by which the sand has been agglutinated, is of the same character with that of the west coast, where a similar concreted limestone occurs in great abundance.

The western shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria is somewhat higher, and from Limmen's Bight to the latitude of Groote Eylandt, is lined by a range of low hills. On the north of the latter place, the coast becomes irregular and broken; the base of the country apparently consisting of primitive rocks, and the upper part of the hills of a reddish sandstone; some of the specimens of which are identical with that which occurs at Goulburn and Sims Islands on the north coast, and is very widely distributed on the north-west. The shore at the bottom of Melville Bay is stated by Captain Flinders to consist of low cliffs of pipe-clay, for a space of about eight miles in extent from east to west; and similar cliffs of pipe-clay are described as occurring at Goulburn Islands (see the plate, volume 1) and at Lethbridge Bay, on the north of Melville Island: both of which places are considerably to the west of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

Morgan's Island, a small islet in Blue-Mud Bay, on the north-west of Groote Eylandt, is composed of clink-stone; and other rocks of the trap-formation occur in several places on this coast.

The north of Blue-Mud Bay has furnished also specimens of ancient sandstone; with columnar rocks, probably of clink-stone. Round Hill, near Point Grindall, a promontory on the north of Morgan's Island, is composed, at the base, of granite; and Mount Caledon, on the west side of Caledon Bay, seems likewise to consist of that rock, as does also Melville Island. This part of the coast has afforded the ferruginous oxide of manganese: and brown hematite is found hereabouts in considerable quantity, on the shore at the base of the cliffs; forming the cement of a breccia, which contains fragments of sandstone, and in which the ferruginous matter appears to be of very recent production; resembling, perhaps, the hematite observed at Edinburgh by Professor Jameson, around cast-iron pipes which had lain for some time in sand.*

(*Footnote. Edinburgh Philosophical Journal, July 1825 page 193.)

The general range of the coast, it will be observed, from Limmen's Bight to Cape Arnhem, is from south-west to north-east; and three conspicuous ranges of islands on the north-western entrance of the Gulf of Carpentaria, the appearance of which is so remarkable as to have attracted the attention of Captain Flinders,* have the same general direction: a fact which is probably not unconnected with the general structure of the country. The prevailing rock in all these islands appears to be sandstone.

(Flinders Volume 2 page 158. See hereafter.)

The line of the main coast from Point Dale to the bottom of Castlereagh Bay, where Captain King's survey was resumed, has also a direction from south-west to north-east, parallel to that of the ranges of islands just mentioned. The low land near the north coast in Castlereagh Bay, and from thence to Goulburn Islands, is intersected by one of the few rivers yet discovered in this part of Australia, a tortuous and shallow stream, named Liverpool River, which has been traced inland to about forty miles from the coast, through a country not more than three feet in general elevation above high-water mark; the banks being low and muddy, and thickly wooded: And this description is applicable also to the Alligator Rivers on the south-east of Van Diemen's Gulf, and to the surrounding country. The outline of the Wellington Hills, however, on the mainland between the Liverpool and Alligator Rivers, is jagged and irregular; this range being thus remarkably contrasted with the flat summits which appear to be very numerous on the north-western coast.

The specimens from Goulburn Islands consist of reddish sandstone, not to be distinguished from that which occurs beneath the coal formation in England. On the west of these islands the coast is more broken, and the outline is irregular: but the elevation is inconsiderable; the general height in Cobourg Peninsula not being above one hundred and fifty feet above the sea, and that of the hills not more than from three to four hundred feet.

On this part of the coast, several hills are remarkable for the flatness of their tops; and the general outline of many of the islands, as seen on the horizon, is very striking and peculiar. Thus Mount Bedwell and Mount Roe, on the south of Cobourg Peninsula; Luxmoore Head, at the west end of Melville Island; the Barthelemy Hills, south of Cape Ford; Mount Goodwin, south of Port Keats; Mount Cockburn, and several of the hills adjacent to Cambridge Gulf, the names given to which during the progress of the survey sufficiently indicate their form, as House-roofed, Bastion, Flat-top, and Square-top Hills; Mount Casuarina, about forty miles north-west of Cambridge Gulf; a hill near Cape Voltaire; Steep-Head, Port Warrender; and several of the islands off that port, York Sound, and Prince Regent's River; Cape Cuvier, about latitude 24 degrees; and, still further south, the whole of Moresby's flat-topped Range, are all distinguished by their linear and nearly horizontal outlines: and except in a few instances, as Mount Cockburn, Steep-Head, Mounts Trafalgar and Waterloo (which look more like hills of floetz-trap) they have very much the aspect of the summits in the coal formation.*

(*Footnote. Captain King, however, has informed me, that in some of these cases, the shape of the hill is really that of a roof, or hayrick; the transverse section being angular, and the horizontal top an edge.)

Sketch 1 of some of the islands off Admiralty Gulf (looking southward from the north-east end of Cassini Island, about latitude 13 degrees 50 minutes, East longitude 125 degrees 50 minutes) has some resemblance to one of the views in Peron's Atlas (plate 6 figure 7): and the outline of the Iles Forbin (plate 8 figure 5, of the same series) also exhibits remarkably the peculiar form represented in several of Captain King's drawings (Sketch 2).

The red colour of the cliffs on the north-west and west coasts, is also an appearance which is frequently noticed on the sketches taken by Captain King and his officers. This is conspicuous in the neighbourhood of Cape Croker; at Darch Island and Palm Bay; at Point Annesley and Point Coombe in Mountnorris Bay; in the land about Cape Van Diemen, and on the north-west of Bathurst Island. The cliffs on Roe's River (Prince Frederic's Harbour) as might have been expected from the specimens, are described as of a reddish colour; Cape Leveque is of the same hue; and the northern limit of Shark's Bay, Cape Cuvier of the French, latitude 24 degrees 13 minutes, which is like an enormous bastion, may be distinguished at a considerable distance by its full red colour.*

(*Footnote. Freycinet page 195.)

It is on the bank of the channel which separates Bathurst and Melville Islands, near the north-western extremity of New Holland, that a new colony has recently been established: (see Captain King's Narrative volume 2.) A permanent station under the superintendence of a British officer, in a country so very little known, and in a situation so remote from any other English settlement, affords an opportunity of collecting objects of natural history, and of illustrating various points of great interest to physical geography and meteorology, which it is to be hoped will not be neglected. And as a very instructive collection, for the general purposes of geology, can readily be obtained in such situations, by attending to a few precautions, I have thought that some brief directions on this subject would not be out of place in the present publication; and have subjoined them to the list of specimens at the close of this paper.*

(*Footnote. See hereafter.)

In the vicinity of Cambridge Gulf, Captain King states, the character of the country is entirely changed; and irregular ranges of detached rocky hills composed of sandstone, rising abruptly from extensive plains of low level land, supersede the low and woody coast, that occupies almost uninterruptedly the space between this inlet and Cape Wessel, a distance of more than six hundred miles. Cambridge Gulf, which is nothing more than a swampy arm of the sea, extends to about eighty miles inland, in a southern direction: and all the specimens from its vicinity precisely resemble the older sandstones of the confines of England and Wales.* The View (volume 1 plate) represents in the distance Mount Cockburn, at the head of Cambridge Gulf; the flat rocky top of which was supposed to consist of sandstone, but has also the aspect of the trap-formation. The strata in Lacrosse Island, at the entrance of the Gulf, rise toward the north-west, at an angle of about 30 degrees with the horizon: their direction consequently being from north-east to south-west.

(*Footnote. I use the term Old Red Sand Stone, in the acceptation of Messrs. Buckland and Conybeare, Observations on the South Western Coal District of England. Geological Transactions Second Series volume 1. Captain King's specimens from Lacrosse Island are not to be distinguished from the slaty strata of that formation, in the banks of the Avon, about two miles below Clifton.)

From hence to Cape Londonderry, towards the south, is an uniform coast of moderate elevation; and from that point to Cape Leveque, although the outline may be in a general view considered as ranging from north-east to south-west,* the coast is remarkably indented, and the adjoining sea irregularly studded with very numerous islands. The specimens from this tract consist almost entirely of sandstone, resembling that of Cambridge Gulf, Goulburn Island, and the Gulf of Carpentaria; with which the trap-formation appears to be associated.

(*Footnote. The large chart Sheet 5 best shows the general range of the shore, from the islands filling up the inlets.)

York Sound, one of the principal inlets on this part of the coast, is bounded by precipitous rocks, from one to two hundred feet in height; and some conical rocky peaks, which not improbably consist of quartz-rock, were noticed on the eastern side of the entrance. An unpublished sketch, by Captain King, shows that the banks of Hunter's River, one of the branches of York Sound, at seven or eight miles from its opening, are composed of sandstone, in beds of great regularity; and this place is also remarkable for a copious spring of fresh water, one of the rarest phenomena of these thirsty and inhospitable shores.*

(*Footnote. Narrative 1.)

The most considerable inlet, however, which has yet been discovered in this quarter of Australia, is Prince Regent's River, about thirty miles to the south-west of York Sound, the course of which is almost rectilinear for about fifty miles in a south-eastern direction; a fact which will probably be found to be connected with the geological structure of the country. The general character of the banks, which are lofty and abrupt, is precisely the same with that of the rivers falling into York Sound; and the level of the country does not appear to be higher in the interior than near the coast. The banks are from two to four hundred feet in height, and consist of close-grained siliceous sandstone, of a reddish hue;* and the view (Plate above) shows that the beds are nearly horizontal, and very regularly disposed; the cascade there represented being about one hundred and sixty feet in height, and the beds from six to twelve feet in thickness. Two conspicuous hills, which Captain King has named Mounts Trafalgar and Waterloo, on the north-east of Prince-Regent's River, not far from its entrance, are remarkable for cap-like summits, much resembling those which characterize the trap formation. (Sketch 3.)

(*Footnote. Narrative 1 and 2.)

The coast on the south of this remarkable river, to Cape Leveque, has not yet been thoroughly examined; but it appears from Captain King's Chart (Number 5) to be intersected by several inlets of considerable size, to trace which to their termination is still a point of great interest in the physical geography of New Holland. The space thus left to be explored, from the Champagny Isles to Cape Leveque, corresponds to more than one hundred miles in a direct line; within which extent nothing but islands and detached portions of land have yet been observed. One large inlet especially, on the south-east of Cape Leveque, appears to afford considerable promise of a river; and the rise of the tide within the Buccaneer's Archipelago, where there is another unexplored opening, is no less than thirty-seven feet.

The outline of the coast about Cape Leveque itself is low, waving, and rounded; and the hue for which the cliffs are remarkable in so many parts of the coast to the north, is also observable here, the colour of the rocks at Point Coulomb being of a deep red: but on the south of the high ground near that Point, the rugged stony cliffs are succeeded by a long tract, which to the French voyagers (for it was not examined by Captain King) appeared to consist of low and sandy land, fronted by extensive shoals. It has hitherto been seen, however, only at a distance; so that a space of more than three hundred miles, from Point Gantheaume nearly to Cape Lambert, still remains to be accurately surveyed.

Depuch Island, east of Dampier's Archipelago, about latitude 20 degrees 30 minutes, is described by the French naturalists as consisting in a great measure of columnar rocks, which they supposed to be VOLCANIC; and they found reason to believe that the adjoining continent was of the same materials.* It is not improbable, however, that this term was applied to columns belonging to the trap formation, since no burning mountain has been any where observed on the coast of New Holland: nor do the drawings of Depuch Island, made on board Captain King's vessel, give reason to suppose that it is at present eruptive. Captain King's specimens from Malus Island, in Dampier's Archipelago (sixty miles farther west) consist of greenstone and amygdaloid.

(*Footnote. Peron volume 1 page 130.)

The coast is again broken and rugged about Dampier's Archipelago, latitude 20 degrees 30 minutes; and on the south of Cape Preston, in latitude 21 degrees, is an opening of about fifteen miles in width, between rocky hills, which has not been explored. From thence to the bottom of Exmouth Gulf, more than one hundred and fifty miles, the coast is low and sandy, and does not exhibit any prominences. The west coast of Exmouth Gulf itself is formed by a promontory of level land, terminating in the North-west Cape; and from thence to the south-west, as far as Cape Cuvier, the general height of the coast is from four to five hundred feet; nor are any mountains visible over the coast range.

Several portions of the shore between Shark's Bay and Cape Naturaliste have been described in the account of Commodore Baudin's Expedition; but some parts still remain to be surveyed. From the specimens collected by Captain King and the French descriptions, it appears that the islands on the west of Shark's Bay abound in a concretional calcareous rock of very recent formation, similar to what is found on the shore in several other parts of New Holland, especially in the neighbourhood of King George's Sound; and which is abundant also on the coast of the West Indian Islands, and of the Mediterranean. Captain King's specimens of this production are from Dirk Hartog's and Rottnest Islands; and M. Peron states that the upper parts of Bernier and Dorre Islands are composed of a rock of the same nature. This part of the coast is covered in various places with extensive dunes of sand; but the nature of the base, on which both these and the calcareous formation repose, has not been ascertained.

The general direction of the rocky shore, from North-west Cape to Dirk Hartog's Island, is from the east of north to the west of south. On the south of the latter place the land turns towards the east. High, rocky and reddish cliffs have been seen indistinctly about latitude 27 degrees; and a coast of the same aspect has been surveyed, from Red Point, about latitude 28 degrees, for more than eighty miles to the south-west. The hills called Moresby's flat-topped Range, of which Mount Fairfax, latitude 28 degrees 45 minutes, is the highest point, occupy a space of more than fifty miles from north to south.

Rottnest Island and its vicinity, latitude 32 degrees, contains in abundance the calcareous concretions already mentioned; which seem there to consist in a great measure of the remains of recent shells, in considerable variety. The islands of this part of the shore have been described by MM. Peron and Freycinet;* and the coast to the south, down to Cape Leeuwin, the south-western extremity of New Holland, having been sufficiently examined by the French voyagers, was not surveyed by Captain King.

(*Footnote. Peron volume 2 page 168 etc.)

Swan River (Riviere des Cygnes) upon this part of the coast, latitude 31 degrees 25 minutes to 32 degrees, was examined by the French expedition, to the distance of about twenty leagues from its mouth; and found still to contain salt water. The rock in its neighbourhood consisted altogether of sandy and calcareous incrustations, in horizontal beds, enclosing, it is stated, shells, and the roots and even trunks of trees. Between this river and Cape Peron, a "great bay" was left unexplored.*

(*Footnote. Peron volume 1 page 179. Freycinet page 5. 170.)

The prominent mass of land, which stands out from the main, between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin, and runs nearly on the meridian for more than fifty miles, seems to have a base of granite, which, at Cape Naturaliste, is said to be stratified.* The same rock also occurs, among Captain King's specimens, from Bald-head in King George's Sound; but nearly on the summit of that hill, which is about five hundred feet high, were Found the ramified calcareous concretions, erroneously considered as corals by Vancouver and others;** but which appear, from Captain King's specimens, to be nothing more than a variety of the recent limestone so abundant throughout these shores.

(*Footnote. Peron volume 1 page 69.)

(**Footnote. Vancouver 1 49. D'Entrecasteaux 2 175. Freycinet 105. Flinders 1 63. See the detailed descriptions hereafter; and Captain King's Narrative volume 1.)

The south coast, and the southern portion of the east coast of Australia, which were surveyed by Captain Flinders, are described in the account of his voyage, and do not come within the object of the present paper.

...

GEOLOGICAL REMARKS.

1. The rocks, of which specimens occur in the collections of Captain King and Mr. Brown, are the following:

Granite: Cape Cleveland; C. Grafton; Endeavour River; Lizard Island; Round Hill, near C. Grindall; Mount Caledon; Island near C. Arnhem; Melville Bay; Bald-head, King George's Sound.

Various Slaty Rocks: Mica-State: Mallison's I. Talc-State: Endeavour River. Slaty Clay: Inglis' I., Clack I., Percy I. Hornblende Rock ?: Pobassoo's Island; Halfway Bay, Prince Regent's River.

Granular Quartz: Endeavour River; Montagu Sound, North-west Coast. Epidote: C. Clinton ?; Port Warrender; Careening Bay.

Quartzose Conglomerates, and ancient Sandstones: Rodd's Bay; Islands of the north and north-west coasts; Cambridge Gulf; York Sound; Prince Regent's River.

Pipe-clay: Melville Bay; Goulburn I.; Lethbridge Bay.

ROCKS OF THE TRAP FORMATION.

Serpentine: Port Macquarie; Percy Isles.

Sienite: Rodd's Bay.

Porphyry: C. Cleveland.

Porphyritic Conglomerate: C. Clinton, Percy I., Good's I.

Compact Felspar: Percy I., Repulse Bay, Sunday Island.

Greenstone: Vansittart Bay, Bat I., Careening Bay, Malus I.

Clinkstone: Morgan's I., Pobassoo's I.

Amygdaloid, with Chalcedony: Port Warrender; Half-way Bay; Bat Island; Malus I.

Wacke ?: Bat Island.

...

Recent calcareous Breccia: Sweer's Island, N. coast. Dirk Hartog's and Rottnest Islands, etc., West coast. King George's Sound, South coast.

The only information that has been published respecting the geology of New Holland, besides what is contained in the Voyages of Captain Flinders and Commodore Baudin, is a slight notice by Professor Buckland of some specimens collected during Mr. Oxley's Expedition to the River Macquarie,* in 1818; and a brief outline of a paper by the Reverend Archdeacon Scott, entitled A Sketch of the Geology of New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, which has been read before the Geological Society.** On these authorities, the following may be added to the preceding list of rocks:

Limestone, resembling in the character of its organic remains the mountain limestone or England: Interior of New Holland, near the east coast; Van Diemen's Land (Buckland; Prevost manuscripts; Scott).

The Coal-formation: East coast of New Holland; Van Diemen's Land. (Buckland-Scott.)

Indications of the new red-Sandstone (Red-Marl) afforded by the occurrence of Salt: Van Diemen's Land. (Scott.)

Oolite: Van Diemen's Land. (Scott.)

(*Footnote. Geological Transactions volume 5 page 480.)

(**Footnote. Ann. of Phil. June 1824. I am informed that Mr. Von Buch also has published a paper on the rocks of New Holland; but have not been so fortunate as to meet with it.

Since this paper has been at the press, a Report presented to the Academy of Sciences at Paris, on the Voyage of Discovery of M. Duperrey, performed during the years 1822 to 1825, has been published; from whence I have subjoined an extract, in order to complete the catalogue of the rocks of Australia, according to the present state of our information.

Les echantillons recueillis tant dans les contrees voisines du Port Jackson, que dans les Montagnes-Bleues, augmentent beaucoup nos connoissances sur ces parties de la Nouvelle Hollande. Les echantillons, au nombre de soixante-dix, nous offrent, 1. Les granites, les syenites-quartziferes, et les pegmatites (granites graphiques) qui cunstituent le second plan des Muntagnes-Bleues. 2. Les gres ferrugineux, et renfermant d'abondantes paillettes de fer oligiste, qui couvrent non seulement une vaste etendue de pays pres des cotes, mais encore le premier plan des Montagnes-Bleues; et 3. Le lignite stratiforme qu'on exploite au Mont-Yorck, a 1000 pieds au-dessus du niveau de la mer, et dont la presence ajoute aux motifs qui portent a penser que les gres ferrugineux de ces contrees appartiennent au systeme des terrains tertiaires.

Vingt-sept echantillons ramasses a la terre de Van Diemen, dans les environs du port Dalrymple, et pres du Cap Barren, indiquent, 1. Des terrains de pegmatite, et de serpentine. 2. Des terrains intermediaires coquilliers, formes du grauwacke-schistoide, et de pierre calcaire. 3. Des terrains tres-recens, composes d'argile sablonneuse et ferrugineuse, avec geodes de fer hydrate, et du bois fossile, a differens etats. On distingue en outre des belles topazes blanches ou bleuatres, parmi les galets quartzeux, qui ont ete recueillis au Cap Barren: Bulletin des Sciences Naturelles, Octobre 1825 page 189.)

2. The specimens of Captain King's and Mr. Brown's collections, without any exception, agree with those of the same denominations from other parts of the world; and the resemblance is, in some instances, very remarkable: The sandstones of the west and north-west of New Holland are so like those of the west of England, and of Wales, that the specimens from the two countries can scarcely be distinguished from each other; the arenaceous cement in the calcareous breccia of the west coast is precisely the same with that of Sicily; and the jasper, chalcedony, and green quartz approaching to heliotrope, from the entrance of Prince Regent's River, resemble those of the Tyrol, both in their characters and association. The Epidote of Port Warrender and Careening Bay, affords an additional proof of the general distribution of that mineral; which, though perhaps it may not constitute large masses, seems to be of more frequent occurrence as a component of rocks than has hitherto been supposed.* The mineral itself, both crystallized and compact, the latter in the form of veins traversing sienitic rocks, occurs, in Mr. Greenough's cabinet alone, from Malvern, North Wales, Ireland, France, and Upper Saxony. Mr. Koenig has found it extensively in the sienitic tract of Jersey;** where blocks of a pudding-stone, bearing some resemblance to the green breccia of Egypt, were found to be composed of compact epidote, including very large pebbles of a porphyritic rock, which itself contains a considerable proportion of this substance. And Mr. Greenough has recently received, among specimens sent home by Mr. J. Burton, junior, a mass of compact epidote, with quartz and felspar, from Dokhan, in the desert between the Red Sea and the Nile. When New Holland is added to these localities, it will appear that few minerals are more widely diffused.

(*Footnote. See Cleaveland's Mineralogy 1816 page 297 to 300.)

(**Footnote. Plee's Account of Jersey quarto Southampton 1817 page 231 to 276.)

3. The unpublished sketches, by Captain King and Mr. Roe, of the hills in sight during the progress of the survey of the Coasts of Australia, accord in a very striking manner with the geological character of the shore. Those from the east coast, where the rocks are primitive, representing strongly marked and irregular outlines of lofty mountains, and frequently, in the nearer ground, masses of strata highly inclined. The outlines on the contrary, on the north, north-west, and western shores, are most commonly uniform, rectilinear, the summits flat, and diversified only by occasional detached and conical peaks, none of which are very lofty.

4. No information has yet been obtained, from any of the collections, respecting the diluvial deposits of Australia: a class of phenomena which is of the highest interest, in an island of such vast extent, so very remote in situation, and of which the existing animals are so different from those of other parts of the globe. It is remarkable, also, that no limestone is among the specimens from the northern and western shores, except that of the recent breccia; and although negative conclusions are hazardous, it would seem probable, from this circumstance, that limestone cannot be very abundant or conspicuous at the places visited. No eruptive mountains, nor any traces of recent volcanic eruption, have yet been observed in any part of Australia.

5. The recent calcareous breccia, of which a detailed description will be found in the subjoined list of specimens, is one of the most remarkable productions of New Holland: It was found, during the expedition of Commodore Baudin, to exist throughout a space of no less than twenty-five degrees of latitude, and an equal extent of longitude, on the southern, west, and north-west coasts;* and from Mr. Brown's specimens it appears to occur also on the shores of the Gulf of Carpentaria. The full account which M. Peron has given of this formation, sufficiently shows its resemblance to the very recent limestone, full of marine shells, which abounds on the shores of the Mediterranean, the West India Islands, and in several other parts of the world: And it is a point of the greatest interest in geology, to determine, whether any distinct line can really be drawn, between those concretions, unquestionably of modern formation, which occur immediately upon the shore; and other calcareous accumulations, very nearly resembling them, if not identical, both in the fossils they contain, and in the characters of the cementing substances, that are found in several countries, at considerable heights above the sea.

(*Footnote. Voyage 2 page 168, 169 to 216 etc.)

Dr. Buckland has described a breccia of modern formation, which occurs upon the shore at Madagascar, and consists of a firmly-compacted cream-coloured stone, composed of granular fragments of shells, agglutinated by a calcareous cement.* The stone of Guadaloupe, containing the human skeletons, is likewise of the same nature; and its very recent production cannot be doubted, since it contains fragments of stone axes, and of pottery.** The cemented shells of Bermuda, described by Captain Vetch,*** which pass gradually into a compact limestone, differ only in colour from the Guadaloupe stone; and agree with it, and with the calcareous breccia of Dirk Hartog's Island, in the gradual melting down of the cement into the included portions, which is one of the most remarkable features of that rock.**** A calcareous compound, apparently of the same kind, has been recently mentioned, as of daily production in Anastasia Island, on the coast of East Florida;***** and will probably be found to be of very general occurrence in that quarter of the globe. And Captain Beaufort's account of the process by which the gravelly beach is cemented into stone, at Selinti, and several other places on the coast of Karamania, on the north-east of the Mediterranean,****** accords with M. Peron's description of the progress from the loose and moveable sands of the dunes to solid masses of rock.******* In the island of Rhodes, also, there are hills of pudding-stone, of the same character, considerably elevated above the sea. And Captain W.H. Smyth, the author of Travels in Sicily, and of the Survey of the Mediterranean recently published by the Admiralty, informs me, that he has seen these concretions in Calabria, and on the coasts of the Adriatic; but still more remarkably in the narrow strip of recent land (called the Placca) which connects Leucadia, one of the Ionian Islands, with the continent, and so much resembles a work of art, that it has been considered as a Roman fabric. The stone composing this isthmus is so compact, that the best mill-stones in the Ionian Islands are made from it; but it is in fact nothing more than gravel and sand cemented by calcareous matter, the accretion of which is supposed to be rapidly advancing at the present day.

(*Footnote. Geological Transactions volume 5 page 479.)

(**Footnote. Linnean Transactions 12 page 53 to 57.)

(***Footnote. Geological Transactions 2nd Series volume 1 page 172.)

(****Footnote. Koenig Philosophical Transactions 1814 page 107 etc.)

(*****Footnote. Bulletin des Sciences Nat. Mars 1825.)

(******Footnote. Beaufort's Description of the South Coast of Asia Minor etc. Second edition. London 1818: pages 180 to 184 etc. In the neighbourhood of Adalia the deposition of calcareous matter from the water is so copious that an old watercourse had actually crept upwards to a height of nearly three feet; and the rapidity of the deposition was such that some specimens were collected on the grass, where the stony crust was already formed, although the verdure of the leaf was as yet but imperfectly withered (page 114): a fact which renders less extraordinary M. Peron's statement that the excrements of kangaroos had been found concreted by calcareous matter. Peron volume 2 page 116.)

(*******Footnote. Voyage 2 116.)

The nearest approach to the concreted sand-rock of Australia, that I have seen, is in the specimens presented by Dr. Daubeny to the Bristol Institution, to accompany his excellent paper on the geology of Sicily;* which prove that the arenaceous breccia of New Holland is very like that which occupies a great part of the coast, almost entirely around that island. Some of Dr. Daubeny's specimens from Monte Calogero, above Sciacca, consist of a breccia, containing angular fragments of splintery limestone, united by a cement, composed of minute grains of quartzose-sand disseminated in a calcareous paste, resembling precisely that of the breccia of Dirk Hartog's Island: and a compound of this kind, replete with shells, not far, if at all, different from existing species, fills up the hollows in most of the older rocks of Sicily; and is described as occurring, in several places, at very considerable heights above the sea. Thus, near Palermo, it constitutes hills some hundred feet in height; near Girgenti, all the most elevated spots are crowned with a loose stratum of the same kind; and the heights near Castro Giovanni, said to be 2880 feet above the sea, are probably composed of it. But although the concretions of the interior in Sicily much resemble those of the shore, it is still doubtful whether the former be not of more ancient formation; and if they contain nummulites, they would probably be referred to the epoch of the beds within the Paris basin.

(*Footnote. Edinburgh Philosophical Journal 1825 pages 116, 117, 118, and 254 to 255.)

The looser breccia of Monte Pelegrino, in Sicily, is very like the less compacted fragments of shells from Bermuda, described by Captain Vetch, and already referred to:* and the rock in both these cases, nearly approaches to some of the coarser oolites of England.

(*Footnote. These specimens are in the Museum of the Geological Society.)

The resemblance pointed out by M. Prevost,* of the specimens of recent breccia from New Holland, in the museum at the Jardin du Roi, to those of St. Hospice near Nice, is confirmed by the detail given by Mr. Allan in his sketch of the geology of that neighbourhood;** in which the perfect preservation of the shells, and their near approach to those of the adjoining sea at the present day, are particularly mentioned; and it is inferred that the date of the deposit which affords them, is anterior to that of the conglomerate containing the bones of extinct quadrupeds, likewise found in that country. M. Brongniart also, who examined the place himself, mentions the recent accumulation which occurs at St. Hospice, about sixty feet above the present level of the sea, as containing marine shells in a scarcely fossil state (a peine fossiles) and he describes the mass in which they occur, as belonging to a formation still more recent than the upper marine beds of the environs of Paris.***

(*Footnote. Prevost manuscripts. See hereafter.)

(**Footnote. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh volume 8 1818 page 427 etc. See also the previous publications of M. Risso Journal des Mines tome 34 etc.)

(***Footnote. Brongniart in Cuvier Ossemens Fossiles; 2nd Edit. volume 2 page 427.)

The geological period indicated by these facts, being probably more recent than the tertiary beds containing nummulites, and generally than the Paris and London strata, accords with the date which has hitherto been assigned to the crag beds of Suffolk, Essex, and Norfolk:* but later observations render doubtful the opinion generally received respecting the age of these remarkable deposits, and a full and satisfactory account of them is still a desideratum in the geology of England. When, also, our imperfect acquaintance with the travertino of Italy, and other very modern limestones containing freshwater shells, is considered,** the continual deposition of which, at the present time, cannot be questioned (though probably the greater part of the masses which consist of them may belong to an era preceding the actual condition of the earth's surface) it would seem that the whole subject of these newer calcareous formations requires elucidation: and, if the inferences connected with them do not throw considerable doubt upon some opinions at present generally received, they show, at least, that a great deal more is to be learned respecting the operations and products of the most recent geological epochs, than is commonly supposed.

(*Footnote. Conybeare and Phillips Outlines etc. page 11, Geological Transactions 1 page 327 etc. Taylor in Geological Transactions 2nd series Volume 2 page 371. Mr. Taylor states the important fact that the remains of unknown animals are buried together with the shells in the crag of Suffolk; but does not mention the nature of these remains. Since these pages have been at the press, Mr. Warburton, by whom the coast of Essex and Norfolk has been examined with great accuracy, has informed me that the fossil bones of the crag are the same with those of the diluvial gravel, including the remains of the elephant, rhinoceros, stag, etc.)

(**Footnote. Some valuable observations on the formation of recent limestone, in beds of shelly marl at the bottom of lakes in Scotland, have been read before the Geological Society by Mr. Lyell, and will appear in the volume of the Transactions now in the press. See Annals of Philosophy 1825 page 310.)

Since it appears that the accretion of calcareous matter is continually going on at the present time, and has probably taken place at all times, the stone thus formed, independent of the organized bodies which it envelopes, will afford no criterion of its date, nor give any very certain clue to the revolutions which have subsequently acted upon it. But as MARINE shells are found in the cemented masses, at heights above the sea, to which no ordinary natural operations could have conveyed them, the elevation of these shells to their actual place (if not that of the rock in which they are agglutinated) must be referred to some other agency: while the perfect preservation of the shells, their great quantity, and the abundance of the same species in the same places, make it more probable that they lay originally in the situations where we now find them, than that they have been transported from any considerable distances, or elevated by any very turbulent operation. Captain de Freycinet, indeed, mentions that patellae, worn by attrition, and other recent shells, have been found on the west coast of New Holland, on the top of a wall of rocks an hundred feet above the sea, evidently brought up by the surge during violent storms;* but such shells are found in the breccia of Sicily, and in several other places, at heights too great, and their preservation is too perfect, to admit of this mode of conveyance; and to account for their existence in such situations, recourse must be had to more powerful means of transport.

(* Freycinet page 187. The presence of shells in such situations may often be ascribed to the birds, which feed on their inhabitants. At Madeira, where recent shells are found near the coast at a considerable height above the sea, the Gulls have been seen carrying up the living patellae, just taken from the rocks.)

The occurrence of corals, and marine shells of recent appearance, at considerable heights above the sea, on the coasts of New Holland, Timor, and several other islands of the south, was justly considered by M. Peron as demonstrating the former abode of the sea above the land; and very naturally suggested an inquiry, as to the nature of the revolutions to which this change of situation is to be ascribed.* From similar appearances at Pulo Nias, one of the islands off the western coast of Sumatra, Dr. Jack also was led to infer, that the surface of that island must at one time have been the bed of the ocean; and after stating, that by whatever means it obtained its present elevation, the transition must have been effected with little violence or disturbance to the marine productions at the surface,** he concludes, that the phenomena are in favour of a HEAVING UP OF THE LAND, BY A FORCE FROM BENEATH. The probable nature of this force is indicated most distinctly, if not demonstrated, by the phenomena which attended the memorable earthquake of Chili, in November, 1820,*** which was felt throughout a space of fifteen hundred miles from north to south. For it is stated upon the clearest evidence, that after formidable shocks of earthquake, repeated with little interruption during the whole night of the 19th of November (and the shocks were continued afterwards, at intervals, for several months) IT APPEARED, on the morning of the 20th, THAT THE WHOLE LINE OF COAST FROM NORTH TO SOUTH, TO A DISTANCE OF ABOUT ONE HUNDRED MILES, HAD BEEN RAISED ABOVE ITS FORMER LEVEL. The alteration of level at Valparaiso was about three feet; and some rocks were thus newly exposed, on which the fishermen collected the scallop-shell fish, which was not known to exist there before the earthquake. At Quintero the elevation was about four feet. "When I went," the narrator adds, "to examine the coast, although it was high-water, I found the ancient bed of the sea laid bare, and dry, with beds of oysters, mussels, and other shells adhering to the rocks on which they grew, the fish being all dead, and exhaling most offensive effluvia. And I found good reason to believe that the coast had been raised by earthquakes at former periods in a similar manner; several ancient lines of beach, consisting OF SHINGLE MIXED WITH SHELLS, extending, in a parallel direction to the shore, to the height of fifty feet above the sea." Such an accumulation of geological evidence, from different quarters and distinct classes of phenomena, concurs to demonstrate the existence of most powerful expansive forces within the earth, and to testify their agency in producing the actual condition of its surface, that the phenomena just now described are nothing more than what was to be expected from previous induction. These facts, however, not only place beyond dispute the existence of such forces, but show that, even in detail, their effects accord most satisfactorily with the predictions of theory. It is not, therefore, at all unreasonable to conceive, that, in other situations, phenomena of the same character have been produced by the same cause, though we may not at present be enabled to trace its connexion with the existing appearances so distinctly; and though the facts, when they occurred, may have been unnoticed, or may have taken place at periods beyond the reach of historical record, or even beyond the possibility of human testimony.

(*Footnote. Peron Voyage etc. volume 2 pages 165 to 183.)

(**Footnote. Geological Transactions Second Series volume 1 page 403, 404.)

(***Footnote. The statements here referred to, are those of Mrs. Graham, in a letter to Mr. Warburton, which has been published in the Geological Transactions Second Series volume 1 page 412, etc.; and the account is supported and illustrated by a valuable paper in the Journal of the Royal Institution for April 1824 volume 17 page 38 etc.) The writer of this latter article asserts that the whole country, from the foot of the Andes to far out at sea, was raised by the earthquake; the greatest rise being at the distance of about two miles from the shore. The rise upon the coast was from two to four feet: at the distance of a mile, inland, it must have been from five to six, or seven feet, pages 40, 45.)

M. Peron has attributed the great abundance of the modern breccia of New Holland to the large proportion of calcareous matter, principally in the form of comminuted shells, which is diffused through the siliceous sand of the shores in that country;* and as the temperature, especially of the summer, is very high on that part of the coast where this rock has been principally found, the increased solution of carbonate of lime by the percolating water, may possibly render its formation more abundant there, than in more temperate climates. But the true theory of these concretions, under any modification of temperature, is attended with considerable difficulty: and it is certain that the process is far from being confined to the warmer latitudes. Dr. Paris has given an account of a modern formation of sandstone on the northern coast of Cornwall;** where a large surface is covered with a calcareous sand, that becomes agglutinated into a stone, which he considers as analogous to the rocks of Guadaloupe; and of which the specimens that I have seen, resemble those presented by Captain Beaufort to the Geological Society, from the shore at Rhodes. Dr. Paris ascribes this concretion, not to the agency of the sea, nor to an excess of carbonic acid, but to the solution of carbonate of lime itself in water, and subsequent percolation through calcareous sand; the great hardness of the stone arising from the very sparing solubility of this carbonate, and the consequently very gradual formation of the deposit—Dr. MacCulloch describes calcareous concretions, found in banks of sand in Perthshire, which present a great variety of stalactitic forms, generally more or less complicated, and often exceedingly intricate and strange,*** and which appear to be analogous to those of King George's Sound and Sweer's Island: And he mentions, as not unfrequently occurring in sand, in different parts of England (the sand above the fossil bones of Norfolk is given as an example) long cylinders or tubes, composed of sand agglutinated by carbonate of lime, or calcareous stalactites entangling sand, which, like the concretions of Madeira, and those taken for corals at Bald-Head, have been ranked improperly, with organic remains.

(*Footnote. Peron Voyage etc. 2 page 116.)

(**Footnote. Transactions of the Geological Society of Cornwall volume 1 page 1 etc.)

(***Footnote. On an arenaceo-calcareous substance, etc. Quarterly Journal Royal Institution October 1823 volume 16 page 79 to 83.)

The stone which forms the fragments in the breccia of New Holland, is very nearly the same with that of the cement by which they are united, the difference consisting only in the greater proportion of sand which the fragments contain: and it would seem, that after the consolidation of the former, and while the deposition of similar calcareous matter was still in progress, the portions first consolidated must have been shattered by considerable violence. But, where no such fragments exist, the unequal diffusion of components at first uniformly mixed, and even the formation of nodules differing in proportions from the paste which surrounds them, may perhaps admit of explanation, by some process analogous to what takes place in the preparation of the compound of which the ordinary earthenware is manufactured; where, though the ingredients are divided by mechanical attrition only, a sort of chemical action produces, under certain circumstances, a new arrangement of the parts.* And this explanation may, probably, be extended to those nodular concretions, generally considered as contemporaneous with the paste in which they are enveloped, the distinction of which, from conglomerates of mechanical origin, forms, in many cases, a difficulty in geology. What the degree may be, of subdivision required to dispose the particles to act thus upon each other, or of fluidity to admit of their action, remains still to be determined.

(*Footnote. The clay and pulverized flints are combined for the use of the potter, by being first separately diffused in water to the consistence of thick cream, and when mixed in due proportion are reduced to a proper consistence by evaporation. During this process, if the evaporation be not rapid and immediate, or if the ingredients are left to act on each other, even for twenty-four hours, the flinty particles unite into sandy grains, and the mass becomes unfit for the purposes of the manufacturer. I am indebted for this interesting fact, which, I believe, is well known in some of the potteries, to my friend Mr. Arthur Aikin. And Mr. Herschel informs me, that a similar change takes place in recently precipitated carbonate of copper; which, if left long moist, concretes into hard gritty grains, of a green colour, much more difficultly soluble in ammonia than the original precipitate.)

6. As the superficial extent of Australia is more than three-fourths of that of Europe, and the interior may be regarded as unknown,* any theoretic inferences, from the slight geological information hitherto obtained respecting this great island, are very likely to be deceitful; but among the few facts already ascertained respecting the northern portion of it, there are some which appear to afford a glimpse of general structure.

Captain Flinders, in describing the position of the chains of islands on the north-west coast of Carpentaria, Wessel's, the English Company's, and Bromby's Islands, remarks, that he had "frequently observed a great similarity both in the ground plans, and the elevations of hills, and of islands, in the vicinity of each other, but did not recollect another instance of such a likeness in the arrangement of clusters of islands."* The appearances which called for this observation, from a voyager of so much sagacity and experience in physical geography, must probably have been very remarkable; and, combined with information derivable from the charts, and from the specimens for which we are indebted to Captain King and Mr. Brown, they would seem to point out the arrangement of the strata on the northern coasts of New Holland.

(*Footnote. The following are the proportions assigned by Captain de Freycinet to the principal divisions of the globe. Voyage aux Terres Australes page 107.

COLUMN 1: DIVISION OF THE GLOBE. COLUMN 2: AREA IN FRENCH LEAGUES SQUARE. COLUMN 3: PROPORTION.

Asia : 2,200,000 : 17. America : 2,100,000 : 17. Africa : 1,560,000 : 12. Europe : 501,875 : 4. Australia : 384,375 : 3.

The most remote points from the coast of New South Wales, to which the late expeditions have penetrated (and the interior has never yet been examined in any other quarter) are not above 500 miles, in a direct line from the sea; the average width of the island from east to west being more than 2000 miles, and from north to south more than 1000 miles.)

(*Footnote. Flinders 5 2 page 246; and Charts, Plates 14 and 15. King's Charts, Plate 4.)

Of the three ranges which attracted Captain Flinders' notice (see the Map) the first on the south-east (3, 4, 5, 6, 7) is that which includes the Red Cliffs, Mallison's Island, a part of the coast of Arnhem's Land, from Cape Newbold to Cape Wilberforce, and Bromby's Isles; and its length, from the mainland (3) on the south-west of Mallison's Island, to Bromby's Isles (7) is more than fifty miles, in a direction nearly from south-west to north-east. The English Company's Islands (2, 2, 2, 2) at a distance of about four miles, are of equal extent; and the general trending of them all, Captain Flinders states (page 233) is nearly North-East by East, parallel with the line of the main coast, and with Bromby's Islands. Wessel's Islands (1, 1, 1, 1) the third or most northern chain, at fourteen miles from the second range, stretch out to more than eighty miles from the mainland, likewise in the same direction.

It is also stated by Captain Flinders, that three of the English Company's Islands which were examined, slope down nearly to the water on their west sides; but on the east, and more especially the south-east, they present steep cliffs; and the same conformation, he adds, seemed to prevail in the other islands.* If this structure occurred only in one or two instances, it might be considered as accidental; but as it obtains in so many cases, and is in harmony with the direction of the ranges, it is not improbably of still more extensive occurrence, and would intimate a general elevation of the strata towards the south-east.

(*Footnote. Flinders Volume 2 page 235.)

Now on examining the general map, it will be seen, that the lines of the coast on the mainland, west of the Gulf of Carpentaria, between Limmen's Bight and Cape Arnhem—from the bottom of Castlereagh Bay to Point Dale—less distinctly from Point Pearce, latitude 14 degrees 23 minutes, longitude 129 degrees 18 minutes, to the western extremity of Cobourg Peninsula, and from Point Coulomb, latitude 17 degrees 20 minutes, longitude 123 degrees 11 minutes, to Cape Londonderry, have nearly the same direction; the first line being about one hundred and eighty geographical miles, the second more than three hundred, and the last more than four hundred miles, in length.* And these lines, though broken by numerous irregularities, especially on the north-west coast, are yet sufficiently distinct to indicate a probable connexion with the geological structure of the country; since the coincidence of similar ranges of coast with the direction of the strata, is a fact of very frequent occurrence in other parts of the globe.** And it is observable that considerable uniformity exists in the specimens, from the different places in this quarter of New Holland which have been hitherto examined; sandstone, like that of the older formations of Europe occurring generally on the north and north-west coasts, and appearing to be extensively diffused on the north-west of the Gulf of Carpentaria, where it reposes upon primitive rocks.***

(*Footnote. It is deserving of notice, that the coast of Timor, the nearest land on the north-west, at the distance of about 300 miles, is also nearly straight, and parallel to the Coast of New Holland in this quarter: part of the mountainous range, of which that island consists, being probably more than 9000 feet high; and its length, from the north-eastern extremity to the South-West of the adjoining island of Rottee, about 300 miles. But, unfortunately for the hypothesis, a chain of islands immediately on the north of Timor, is continued nearly in a right line for more than 1200 miles (from Sermatta Island to the south-eastern extremity of Java) in a direction FROM EAST TO WEST. This chain, however, contains several volcanoes, including those of Sumbawa, the eruption of which, in 1815, was of extraordinary violence. See Royal Inst. Journal volume 1 1816 page 248 etc.

At Lacrosse Island, in the mouth of Cambridge Gulf, on the north-west coast of New Holland, the beds rise to the North-West: their direction consequently is from South-West to North-East; and the rise towards the high land of Timor. The intervening sea is very shallow.)

(**Footnote. A remarkable case of this kind, which has not, I believe, been noticed, occurs in the Mediterranean; and is conspicuous in the new chart of that sea, by Captain W.H. Smyth. The eastern coast of Corsica and Sardinia, for a space of more than two hundred geographical miles being nearly rectilinear, in a direction from north to south; and, Captain Smyth has informed me, consisting almost entirely of granite, or, at least, of primitive rocks. The coast of Norway affords another instance of the same description; and the details of the ranges in the interior of England furnish several examples of the same kind, on a smaller scale.)

(***Footnote. The coastlines nearly at rightangles to those above-mentioned—from the South-East of the Gulf of Carpentaria to Limmen's Bight, from Cape Arnhem to Cape Croker, and from Cape Domett to Cape Londonderry—have also a certain degree of linearity; but much less remarkable, than those which run from South-West to North-East.)

The horn-like projection of the land, on the east of the Gulf of Carpentaria, is a very prominent feature in the general map of Australia, and may possibly have some connexion with the structure just pointed out. The western shore of this horn, from the bottom of the gulf to Endeavour Straits, being very low; while the land on the east coast rises in proceeding towards the south, and after passing Cape Weymouth, latitude 12 degrees 30 minutes, is in general mountainous and abrupt; and Captain King's specimens from the north-east coast show that granite is found in so many places along this line as to make it probable that primitive rocks may form the general basis of the country in that quarter; since a lofty chain of mountains is continued on the south of Cape Tribulation, not far from the shore, throughout a space of more than five hundred miles. It would carry this hypothesis too far to infer that these primitive ranges are connected with the mountains on the west of the English settlements near Port Jackson, etc., where Mr. Scott has described the coal-measures as occupying the coast from Port Stevens, about latitude 33 degrees to Cape Howe, latitude 37 degrees, and as succeeded, on the eastern ascent of the Blue Mountains, by sandstone, and this again by primitive strata:* But it may be noticed that Wilson's Promontory, the most southern point of New South Wales, and the principal islands in Bass Strait, contain granite; and that primitive rocks occur extensively in Van Diemen's Land.

(*Footnote. Annals of Philosophy June 1824.)

The uniformity of the coastlines is remarkable also in some other quarters of Australia; and their direction, as well as that of the principal openings, has a general tendency to a course from the west of south to the east of north. This, for example, is the general range of the south-east coast, from Cape Howe, about latitude 37 degrees, to Cape Byron, latitude 29 degrees, or even to Sandy Cape, latitude 25 degrees; and of the western coast, from the south of the islands which enclose Shark's Bay, latitude 26 degrees, to North-west Cape, about latitude 22 degrees. From Cape Hamelin, latitude 34 degrees 12 minutes, to Cape Naturaliste, latitude 33 degrees 26 minutes, the coast runs nearly on the meridian. The two great fissures of the south coast, Spencer's, and St. Vincent's Gulfs, as well as the great northern chasm of the Gulf of Carpentaria, have a corresponding direction; and Captain Flinders (Chart 4) represents a high ridge of rocky and barren mountains, on the east of Spencer's Gulf, as continued, nearly from north to south, through a space of more than one hundred geographical miles, between latitude 32 degrees 7 minutes and 34 degrees. Mount Brown, one of the summits of this ridge, about latitude 32 degrees 30 minutes, being visible at the distance of twenty leagues.

The tendency of all this evidence is somewhat in favour of a general parallelism in the range of the strata, and perhaps of the existence of primary ranges of mountains on the east of Australia in general, from the coast about Cape Weymouth* to the shore between Spencer's Gulf and Cape Howe. But it must not be forgotten, that the distance between these shores is more than a thousand miles in a direct line; about as far as from the west coast of Ireland to the Adriatic, or double the distance between the Baltic and the Mediterranean. If, however, future researches should confirm the indications above mentioned, a new case will be supplied in support of the principle long since advanced by Mr. Michell,** which appears (whatever theory be formed to explain it) to be established by geological observation in so many other parts of the world, that the outcrop of the inclined beds, throughout the stratified portion of the globe, is everywhere parallel to the longer ridges of mountains, towards which, also, the elevation of the strata is directed. But in the present state of our information respecting Australia, all such general views are so very little more than mere conjecture, that the desire to furnish ground for new inquiry, is, perhaps, the best excuse that can be offered for having proposed them.

(*Footnote. The possible correspondence of the great Australian Bight, the coast of which in general is of no great elevation, with the deeply-indented Gulf of Carpentaria, tending, as it were, to a division of this great island into two, accords with this hypothesis of mountain ranges: but the distance between these recesses, over the land at the nearest points, is not less than a thousand English miles. The granite, on the south coast, at Investigator's Islands, and westward, at Middle Island, Cape Le Grand, King George's Sound, and Cape Naturaliste, is very wide of the line above-mentioned, and nothing is yet known of its relations.)

(**Footnote. On the Cause of Earthquakes. Philosophical Transactions 1760 volume 51 page 566 to 585, 586.)

...

DETAILED LIST OF SPECIMENS.

The specimens mentioned in the following list have been compared with some of those of England and other countries, principally in the cabinets of the Geological Society, and of Mr. Greenough; and with a collection from part of the confines of the primitive tracts of England and North Wales, formed by Mr. Arthur Aikin, and now in his own possession. Captain King's collection has been presented to the Geological Society; and duplicates of Mr. Brown's specimens are deposited in the British Museum.

RODD'S BAY, on the East Coast, discovered by Captain King, about sixty miles south of Cape Capricorn.* Reddish sandstone, of moderately-fine grain, resembling that which in England occurs in the coal formation, and beneath it (mill-stone grit). A sienitic compound, consisting of a large proportion of reddish felspar, with specks of a green substance, probably mica; resembling a rock from Shap in Cumberland.

(*Footnote. In Captain King's collection are also specimens found on the beach at Port Macquarie, and in the bed of the Hastings River, of common serpentine, and of botryoidal magnesite, from veins in serpentine. The magnesite agrees nearly with that of Baudissero, in Piedmont. (See Cleaveland's Mineralogy 1st edition page 345.)

CAPE CLINTON, between Rodd's Bay and the Percy Islands. Porphyritic conglomerate, with a base of decomposed felspar, enclosing grains of quartz and common felspar, and some fragments of what appears to be compact epidote; very nearly resembling specimens from the trap rocks* of the Wrekin and Breeden Hills in Shropshire. Reddish and yellowish sandy clay, coloured by oxide of iron, and used as pigments by the natives.

(*Footnote. By the terms Trap, and Trap-formation, which I am aware are extremely vague, I intend merely to signify a class of rocks, including several members, which differ from each other considerably in mineralogical character, but agree in some of their principal geological relations; and the origin of which very numerous phenomena concur in referring to some modification of volcanic agency. The term Greenstone also is of very loose application, and includes rocks that exhibit a wide range of characters; the predominant colour being some shade of green, the structure more or less crystalline, and the chief ingredients supposed to be hornblende and felspar, but the components, if they could be accurately determined, probably more numerous and varied, than systematic lists imply.)

PERCY ISLANDS, about one hundred and forty miles north of Cape Capricorn. Compact felspar of a flesh-red hue, enclosing a few small crystals of reddish felspar and of quartz. This specimen is marked "general character of the rocks at Percy Island," and very much resembles the compact felspar of the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh, and of Saxony. Coarse porphyritic conglomerate, of a reddish hue. Serpentine. A trap-like compound, with somewhat the aspect of serpentine, but yielding with difficulty to the knife. This specimen has, at first sight, the appearance of a conglomerate, made up of portions of different hues, purplish, brown, and green; but the coloured parts are not otherwise distinguishable in the fracture: It very strongly resembles a rock which occurs in the trap-formation, near Lyd-Hole, at Pont-y-Pool, in Shropshire. Slaty clay, with particles of mica, like that which frequently occurs immediately beneath beds of coal.

REPULSE ISLAND, in Repulse Bay, about one hundred and twenty miles north-west of the Percy Islands. Indistinct specimens, apparently consisting of decomposed compact felspar. A compound of quartz, mica, and felspar, having the appearance of re-composed granite.

CAPE CLEVELAND, about one hundred and twenty miles north of Repulse Island. Yellowish-grey granite, with brown mica; "from the summit of the hill." Reddish granite, of very fine grain; with the aspect of sandstone. Dark grey porphyritic hornstone, approaching to compact felspar, with imbedded crystals of felspar.

CAPE GRAFTON, about one hundred and eighty miles west of north from Cape Cleveland. Close-grained grey and yellowish-grey granite, with brown mica. A reddish granitic stone, composed of quartz, felspar, and tourmaline.

ENDEAVOUR RIVER, about one hundred miles west of north from Cape Grafton. Grey granite of several varieties; from a peaked hill under Mount Cook and its vicinity. Granular quartz-rock of several varieties: and indistinct specimens of a rock approaching to talc-slate.

LIZARD ISLAND, about fifty miles east of north from Endeavour River. Grey granite, consisting of brown and white mica, quartz, and a large proportion of felspar somewhat decomposed.

CLACK ISLAND, near Cape Flinders, on the north-west of Cape Melville, about ninety miles north-west of Lizard Island. Smoke-grey micaceous slaty-clay, much like certain beds of the old red sandstone, where it graduates into grey wacke. This specimen was taken from a horizontal bed about ten feet in thickness, reposing upon a mass of pudding-stone, which included large pebbles of quartz and jasper; and above it was a mass of sandstone, more than sixty feet thick. (Narrative volume 2.)

SUNDAY ISLAND, near Cape Grenville, about one hundred and seventy miles west of north from Cape Melville. Compact felspar, of a flesh-red colour; very nearly resembling that of the Percy Islands, above-mentioned.

GOOD'S ISLAND, one of the Prince of Wales group, about latitude 10 degrees, thirty-four miles north-west of Cape York. The specimens, in Mr. Brown's collection from this place, consist of coarse-slaty porphyritic conglomerate, with a base of greenish-grey compact felspar, containing crystals of reddish felspar and quartz. This rock has some resemblance to that of Clack Island above-mentioned.

SWEER'S ISLAND, south of Wellesley's group, at the bottom of the Gulf of Carpentaria. A stalactitic concretion of quartzose sand, and fine gravel, cemented by reddish carbonate of lime; apparently of the same nature with the stem-like concretions of King George's Sound: (See hereafter.) In this specimen the tubular cavity of the stalactite is still open.

The shore, in various parts of this island, was found to consist of red ferruginous matter (Bog-iron-ore ?) sometimes unmixed, but not unfrequently mingled with a sandy calcareous stone; and in some places rounded portions of the ferruginous matter were enveloped in a calcareous cement.

BENTINCK ISLAND, near Sweer's Island. A granular compound, like sandstone recomposed from the debris of granite. Brown hematite, enclosing quartzose sand.

PISONIA ISLAND, on the east of Mornington's Island, is composed of calcareous breccia and pudding-stone, which consist of a sandy calcareous cement, including water-worn portions of reddish ferruginous matter, with fragments of shells.

NORTH ISLAND, one of Sir Edward Pellew's group. Coarse siliceous sand, concreted by ferruginous matter; which, in some places, is in the state of brown hematite. Calcareous incrustations, including fragments of madrepores, and of shells, cemented by splintery carbonate of lime.

CAPE-MARIA ISLAND, in Limmen's Bight, was found by Mr. Brown to be composed principally of sandstone. The specimens from this place, however, consist of grey splintery hornstone, with traces of a slaty structure; and of yellowish-grey flint, approaching to chalcedony; with a coarse variety of cacholong, containing small nests of quartz crystals.

GROOTE EYLANDT is composed of sandstone, of which two different varieties occur among the specimens. A quartzose reddish sandstone, of moderately fine grain; and a coarse reddish compound, consisting almost exclusively of worn pebbles of quartz, some of which are more than half an inch in diameter, with a few rounded pebbles of chalcedony. The latter rock is nearly identical with that of Simms' Island, near Goulburn's Island on the north coast.

CHASM ISLAND, WINCHELSEA ISLAND, and BURNEY'S ISLAND, are of the same materials as Groote Eylandt: and sandstone was found also on the western shore of BLUE-MUD BAY.

On the shore of the mainland, opposite to Groote Eylandt, a little north of latitude 14 degrees, Mr. Brown observed the common sandy calcareous stone, projecting here and there in ragged fragments.

MORGAN'S ISLAND, in Blue-Mud Bay, north-west of Groote Eylandt, is composed principally of clink-stone, sometimes indistinctly columnar. But among the specimens are also a coarse conglomerate of a dull purplish colour, including pebbles of granular quartz and a fragment of a slaty rock like potstone: the hue and aspect of the compound being precisely those of the oldest sandstones. Reddish quartzose sandstone, of uniform and fine grain. A concretion of rounded quartz pebbles, cemented by ferruginous matter, apparently of recent formation.

ROUND HILL, near Cape Grindall, a prominence east of north from Blue-Mud Bay, was found by Captain Flinders to consist, at the upper part, of sandstone. The specimens of the rocks in its vicinity are, dark grey granite, somewhat approaching to gneiss, with a few specks of garnet; and a calcareous, probably concretional stone, enclosing the remains of shells, with cavities lined with crystals of calcareous spar.

MOUNT CALEDON, on the mainland, west of Caledon Bay, consists of grey granite, with dark brown mica in small quantity; and on the sides and top of the hill large loose blocks of that rock were observed, resting upon other blocks.

A small island, near Cape Arnhem, is also composed of granite, in which the felspar has a bluish hue.

Smaller of the MELVILLE ISLANDS, north-east of Melville Bay.* A botryoidal mass of ferruginous oxide of manganese, approaching to hematite; the fissures in some places occupied by carbonate of lime.

(*Footnote. The relative position of the islands and bays on this part of the coast is represented in the enlarged Map.)

MELVILLE BAY. Granite, composed of grey and somewhat bluish felspar, dark brown mica, and a little quartz; containing minute disseminated specks of molybdena, and indistinct crystals of pale red garnet.

RED CLIFFS, south-west of Arnhem Bay; on the line of the first chain of islands mentioned by Captain Flinders. (See the Map, figure 3.) Friable conglomerate, of a full brick-red colour, consisting of minute grains of quartz, with a large proportion of ochreous matter.

MALLISON'S ISLAND. (Map, figure 4.) The cliffs of this island are composed of a fissile primitive rock, on which sandstone reposes in regular beds. The specimen of the former resembles gneiss, or mica slate, near the contact with granite: the sandstone is thick-slaty, quartzose, of a reddish hue, with mica disseminated on the surfaces of the joints; and one face of the specimen is incrusted with quartz crystals, thinly coated with botryoidal hematite. Light grey quartzose sandstone of a fine grain, with a thin coating of brown hematite, was also found in this island: And a breccia, consisting of angular fragments of sandstone, cemented by thin, vein-like, coatings of dark brown hematite, was found there, in loose blocks at the bottom of perpendicular cliffs. The specimen of this breccia is attached to a plate of granular quartz, and may possibly have been part of a vein.

The shore of INGLIS' ISLAND, the largest of the ENGLISH COMPANY'S RANGE (2. 2. 2. in the Map) is formed of flat beds, of a slaty argillaceous rock, which breaks into rhomboidal fragments; but the specimen is indistinct. Ferruginous masses, probably consisting of brown hematite, come also from this island.

ASTELL'S ISLAND, north-east of Inglis' Isle. Very fine-grained greyish-white quartzose sandstone; identical with that of Mallison's Island, and very closely resembling some of the specimens from Prince Regent's and Hunter's Rivers.

Among the remaining islands of this range, BOSANQUET'S, COTTON'S, and POBASSOO's Isles, were found by Mr. Brown to consist, in a great measure, of sandstone, of the same character with the specimens above-mentioned.

POBASSOO'S ISLAND, a small islet south-east of Astell's Isle. Fine-grained, somewhat reddish, sandstone. Another specimen of sandstone is friable, of a light flesh-red colour, and apparently composed of the debris of granite. A crystalline rock, consisting of greenish-grey hornblende, with a very small proportion of felspar (Hornblende rock ?). Fragment, apparently from a columnar mass, of a stone intermediate between clink-stone and compact felspar.

Such of the English Company's Islands as were examined by Captain Flinders, are stated by him to consist, in the upper part, of a grit, or sandstone, of a close texture; the lower part being argillaceous, and stratified, and separating into pieces of a reddish colour, resembling flat tiles. The strata-dip to the west, at an angle of about 15 degrees.