Chap, xi.] THE BLUE MOUNTAINS. 



231 



but it lacks shelter, and the passage at the heads is not deep 

 enough for a large ironclad to pass through. 



1 made various excursions from Sydney, during our stay. 

 One of these was to Botany Bay ; a sixpenny omnibus journey. 

 The country here is flat and open, and the vegetation would 

 be very like that of the Cape of Good Hope, in general 

 appearance, were it not for the Grass-trees and Banksias. The 

 far-famed bay is a quiet sandy inlet, resorted to for excursions 

 and the enjoyment of sea air by the Sydney people, and now 

 inhabited principally by keepers of tea gardens. Not far off, 

 across the Bay, the curious Monotreme, the Porcupine Ant- 

 eater {Echidna) is abundant, and can readily be found by means 

 of terriers. Some men procured one living for Von Willemoes 

 Suhm. 



Another excursion was to the Blue Mountains. A trip to 

 the Mountains was given as an act of hospitality by the 

 ministers of the New South Wales Government to the officers 

 of the " Ancona," a German war-vessel, which was at Sydney, 

 and to those of the " Challenger." It is the custom for the 

 Ministers thus to give picnics to parties of men, ladies not 

 being invited. 



The Blue Mountains are piles of horizontally stratified 

 sandstone, rising behind Sydney to about 2,500 feet, with 

 remarkably abrupt terminations on either side, and cut into 

 extraordinary 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 " 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, R.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, 



