NEW SOUTH WALES. 267 



deep gullies and chasms, with perpendicular walls, which bound 

 projecting headlands. 



Prof. Dana treats at great length of the question of the mode 

 of formation of these extraordinary gullies and precipices, in his 

 lt Geology of the U. S. Exploring Expedition," and gives various 

 reasons for showing that the whole has been due to aqueous 

 erosion ; as have also the exactly similarly formed harbours of 

 the coast, with their very numerous branches. These, however, 

 have been subjected to lowering of level, and thus filled by the 

 sea. 



These multi-ramified inlets of the sea resemble fjords in 

 many points, most curiously, but are very different in origin, 

 being in fact canons, which by the sinking of the land have 

 been invaded by the sea. 



The rains, both at Melbourne and Sydney, are extremely 

 violent, and in the friable and easily decomposed soil, have a 

 marvellously excavating effect. At Camden Park, 40 miles 

 from Sydney, I was shown by Captain Onslow, E.N., a deep 

 chasm in a perfectly level expanse of grass-covered land, which 

 was at least 20 feet deep and 20 yards across. All this had 

 been scooped out in a dozen years or so by the rain. In its 

 precipitous walls and isolated pinnacles of undisturbed soil, it 

 curiously represented the Blue Mountain configuration on a 

 small scale. It is only necessary to plough a furrow anywhere 

 in the soil about Camden to lead to the formation in a short 

 time of such a chasm. 



I twice enjoyed the kind hospitality of Sir William Mc Arthur, 

 at Camden Park. The park is 10,000 acres in extent. Here I 

 went out on several occasions to shoot opossums by moonlight. 

 The opossums are out feeding on the trees at night or are out 

 on the ground, and rush up the trees on the approach of danger. 

 They are very difficult to see by one not accustomed to the 

 work, but those who habitually shoot them discover them with 

 astonishing ease. 



In order to find the animals, one places himself so as to get 

 successive portions of the tree between his eye and the moon- 

 light, and thus searching the tree over, at last he catches sight 

 of a dark mass crouching on a branch, and usually sees the ears 



