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 SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 



GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGT. 



1. Sandstone Pillars and Caves of North- Western Australia. — Wo 

 here remarked a very curious circumstance ; several acres of land on 

 this elevated position were nearly covered with lofty isolated sandstone 

 pillars of the most grotesque and fantastic shapes, from which the 

 imagination might easily have pictured to itself forms equally singu- 

 lar and amusing. In one place was a regular unroofed aisle, with a 

 row of massive pillars on each side ; and in another there stood upon 

 a pedestal what appeared to be the legs of an ancient statue, from 

 which the body had been knocked away. Some of these time-worn 

 columns were covered with sweet-smelling creepers ; while their bases 

 were concealed by a dense vegetation, which added much to their 

 very singular appearance. The height of two or three which I mea- 

 sured was upwards of forty feet ; and as the tops of all of them were 

 nearly upon the same level, that of the surrounding country must at 

 one period have been as high as their present summits, probably 

 much higher. From the top of one of these pillars I surveyed the 

 surrounding country, and saw on every side proofs of the same ex- 

 tensive degradation ; so extensive, indeed, that I found it very dif- 

 ficult to account for ; but the gurgling of water, which I heard be- 

 neath me, soon put an end to the state of perplexity in which I was 

 involved, for I ascertained that streams were running in the earth be- 

 neath my feet ; and on descending and creeping into a fissure in the 

 rock, I found beneath the surface a cavern precisely resembling the 

 remains that existed above ground, only that this was roofed, whilst 

 through it ran a small stream, which in the rainy season must be- 

 come a perfect torrent. It was now evident to me, that ere many 

 years had elapsed the roof would give way, and what now were the 

 buttresses of dark and gloomy caverns would emerge into day, and 

 become columns clad in green, and resplendent in the bright sunshine. 

 In this state they would gradually waste away beneath the ever dur- 

 ing influence of atmospheric causes ; and the material being then 

 carried down by the streams through a series of caverns resembling 

 those of which they once formed a portion, would be swept out into 

 the ocean, and deposited on sand-banks, to be raised again at some 

 remote epoch a new continent, built up with the ruins of an ancient 

 world. I subsequently, during the season of heavy rains, remarked the 



