230 SOIL AND MINERALS. [1S39. 



(3.) Fertility is mainly confined to the higher parts of 

 rivers, and not, as in other countries, to their lower valleys. 

 The mountain plains and elevated terraces, and the sides 

 and summits of the hills, near the great ranges, are covered 

 with a highly productive, dry, vegetahle soil. The desolate 

 levels of the interior are either composed of a red tenacious 

 clay, or of a dark hazel-colored loam, rotten and full of holes. 

 In the coast country the soil is a hlack mould, mixed with a 

 clean white sand. The latter is so plentiful that it affects 

 the vegetation in dry weather, and large quantities of it are 

 imported from Sydney to England, for the manufacture of 

 glass. 



The connected ranges are mainly composed of granite, 

 with a thick overlying stratum of ferruginous sandstone. In 

 the Blue mountains the former is rarely seen, except in the 

 valleys and beds of streams, when it has cracked the upper 

 stratum. Limestone is not often met with in Australia : it 

 has been found in a district west of the Blue mountains, and 

 in some other parts of the continent, but in no case presents 

 any conclusive appearance of stratification. Trap occurs 

 quite often, though its location, with reference to that of 

 other rocks, cannot be assigned. Vesicular lava is abundant 

 in the neighborhood of Mount Napier, an extinct volcano 

 lying between the Grampians and the southern coast, called 

 by the natives, Murcoa.* In a low range called Wingen, a 

 little south of the Liverpool range, there is a bituminous 

 burning hill, composed of a great variety of rocks: this con- 

 tains, in close proximity, clay, shale, argillaceous sandstone, 

 feldspar, basalt, ironstone, trap, and hornblende, while the 

 adjacent peaks are chiefly porphyritic. 



From what has been said, it will be perceived, that, al- 

 though all the usual formations are found in this remarkable 

 country, they occur without order, and in defiance of the es- 

 tablished laws of geology. It is not safe, therefore, amid so 

 many anomalies, to affirm, that the mountainous strata are 

 not metalliHerous ; yet the indications strongly warrant tho 



* This is the only volcano which has so fur been discovered in Australia. 



