﻿1848. COMMANDER PULLEN. 271 



beds. Selenite, alum in powder, and the wax- 

 coloured variety of that salt named " Rock butter," 

 with sulphur, were among the products of the de- 

 composition of the shale which I then collected; 

 and the clays which had been exposed to the heat 

 were baked and vitrified, so that the spot resembled 

 an old brick-field. The sand covering the shale 

 here is coherent enough to be a friable sandstone ; 

 and many concretions of clay iron-stone exist 

 in the shale beds, exactly similar to those which 

 are imbedded in the shale of Scented Grass Hill. 

 Wilmot Horton River flows out by a narrow gorge 

 from a flat valley, and the high banks, rising in 

 ridges above the valley, flank it some way inland, 

 as we had noticed them doing on the tributary 

 streams that join the Mackenzie. 



Near Point Fitton the cliff is two hundred feet 

 high, and contains layers of rock-butter two inches 

 thick, with many crystals of selenite adhering to 

 the surface of the slates. The cliff is capped by a 

 marly gravel, two yards thick, containing pebbles 

 of granite, quartz, Lydian stone, and compact 

 limestone. To the southward of Wilmot Horton 

 River, portions of the ruined bank continue to emit 

 smoke. 



Cape Bathurst has been recently invested with 

 more interest since it is the point of the main shore 

 from whence Commander Pullen was directed by 



