ere RUNE S 
SCIENTIFIC EXCURSIONS IN NEW HOLLAND. 285 
species of Banksia, the only one which is seen at a distance 
from the sea. The soil is very sandy, except on a few spots 
near the streams, where it is mingled with clay and vegetable 
earth; and here the Apple tree of Australia (Angophora 
lanceolata), thrives well. In the same way, as the Bricklow 
characterizes this part of the country, so does the Myail 
(Acacia pendula) seem confined to the plains of the Liver- 
pool, Gwydir, and Big Rivers. It has pAyilodia and pendant 
branches, which droop like those of a Weeping Willow, and 
its wood exhales a delicious perfume, resembling violets. 
The black people make their boomerangs of it; this warlike 
instrument seems to be in the hand of every native 
throughout the vast continent of Australia. 
The Condamine is the first river that does not belong to 
the same genus, so to speak, as the Bavan or Darling ; for it 
quickly takes a northward direction and probably pours its 
waters into the Gulf of Carpentaria, describing a curve 
similar to the Bavan. "The Darling Downs begin after you 
pass the Condamine ; they consist of undulated and open 
country; and their black, rich, and basaltic soil, is covered 
with different Graminee, one of which, the Satin Grass 
(Anthistiria), forms the principal food of the numerous 
flocks of sheep which rapidly increase in such a favourable . 
locality. A new kind of Gum tree, called the Moreton Bay Ash, 
is frequent on the hills ; it is distinguished by the lower part 
of its trunk being covered by a very broad scaly and black 
bark, while the upper portion is white, or greyish, and quite 
smooth. Here and there, on the plains, grows a Xanthorrhea 
of a totally different character from X. hastilis, affecting a 
rich soil, while X. Aastilis is only found on the poorest sand, 
and attaining 10-15 feet high and a foot in thickness. 
In one of the streams, (Hudson's Creek) is a bed of coal— 
à remarkable circumstance, in an entirely basaltic soil. The 
alluvium of the valleys, and the river banks, especially those 
of the Condamine, contain fossil bones; but my endeavours 
to procure any proved fruitless. It is not, however, to be 
doubted, that the petrified bones, though not the teeth, of 
elephants, have been found here; but it would seem to me 
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