BY H. I. JENSEN. 849 



The basalt country (Mt. Mellum, Blackall Ranges, ikc.) is 

 invariably covered by dense scrub, containing numerous palms, 

 tree-ferns, bamboos, canes, &c. The andesite tracts sustain chieflj'' 

 large Eucalypts, which are remarkable for their crookedness on 

 this formation. 



In the slate country, both scrub and forest vegetation is present, 

 the former along the valleys, the latter on the riJges. More ton 

 Bay figs, nettle-trees, canes and the so-called wild chestnuts are 

 abundant, but few palms. Excellent timber, both pine and 

 hardwood, is procured here. Cedar is more plentiful on basaltic 

 soil. 



Along the coast box-trees are abundant, and the shore banks 

 usually sustain some Casuarina and bread-fruit trees, whilst 

 growing in the water, mangrove thickets are of frequent occur- 

 rence. 



In Mr. Andrews paper,"^ it is stated that: — "In the coastal 

 regions one finds a few feet beneath the sand a sort of pipeclay, 

 with ironstone nodules, extending to great depth." This state- 

 ment is not strictly correct as far as my observations extend. 

 Several wells have been examined to ascertain the succession of 

 strata under the sandy soil. As a rule, after passing through the 

 surface soil or sand, we reach a white or yellow clay, at a depth 

 of two or three feet. This clay may have a thickness of from 

 one to perhaps twenty feet; if thin, we usually find beneath it a 

 layer of ironstone pebbles a few inches in thickness, and then 

 sandstone, with or without the intermission of another clay band; 

 if thick, there are several gravel and pebble bands in the clay, as 

 was observed in a well on our own homestead, near Caboolture. 



The pebbles of these bands are imbedded in a sandy clay, and 

 have a rounded appearance as if water-worn. In places, particu- 

 larly where intermingled with quartz gravel, they may be of 

 fluviatile origin. On account of these pebbles a river drift theory 

 of the origin of the East More ton lowlands has been advanced. 

 It has been suggested that the whole district has been in geolo' 



* Proc. Linn. Soc. N.S. Wales, 1902, p. 149. 



