BY E. C. ANDREWS. 149 



rise precipitously from them. As seen during a journey up the 

 Brisbane River they, together with St. Helena, Mud and Peel 

 Islands, appear due to a slight elevation. The Glass House 

 Mountains stand out like islands in the centre of this plain. In 

 this connection Mr. J. M. Newman, B.E., writes: — "I think they 

 are undoubtedly the result of recent elevation. For fully 10-20 

 miles inland the country is more or less flat and sand3\ For a 

 few miles in from the coast one finds even now bits of recent 

 shells; also there are large swamps and lagoons, the remnants 

 apparently of rivers whose mouths have been silted up by Ijars. 

 The water runs in them now only in flood time. What ridges 

 there are are Ioav and sandy, and the swamps and paddymelon- 

 liole gullies run between them. As you go inland rhe ridges 

 become higher and less sandy, forming gradually the spurs of a 

 low range of mountains at the back of the Glass House Mountains. 

 These latter rise sheer out of the coastal flats, and seem to have 

 been submarine in origin. ... In the coastal regions one 

 finds a few feet beneath the sand a sort of pipeclay, with ironstone 

 nodules extending to a great depth." 



Dense mangrove swamps have fastened on to the seaward edges 

 of these plains. 



Another great " coastal plain " exists off the mouth of the 

 Burnett, and others around Maryborough. 



Well marked also is the recent gain to the coast by these flats 

 in the neighbourhood of Rockhampton, and due to the action of 

 the Fitzroy River. 



At Keppel Bay great dismal mangrove swamps extend for 

 miles. These pass into the flats just mentioned. 



Again at Mackay similar broad flats exist. 



When nearing Townsville the enormous headlands and atten- 

 dant flats are marked features in the scenery. In almost every 

 case the mountains of the coast line rise sheer out of the low 

 ground until far out at sea they appear as islands. 



Especially emphasised is this association of steep mountain 

 and lowly flats in the neighbourhood of Hinchinbrook Island and 

 the Herbert River (Fig. 1). 



