REPORTS OF RESEARCH COMMITTERS. 319 



the uplift and during the early stages of the uplift flowed north, 

 but the present day principal drainage direction is east and west. 

 Great river-captures have been effected. 



4. The extreme north-east of the Territory is a subsiding area. 



' 5. The climate of the Territory seems to be growing w^etter, as 

 evidenced by the erosion and disintegration of the laterites. 



North Queensland. 



1 . North Queiensland is a peneplain elevated in the post-Cre- 

 taceous periods. The maximum elevation has been along the ©ast 

 coast. Elevation has been alternating with subsidence in the 

 Gulf Country, but the present tendency is for the land to gain 

 on the sea, principally through alluviation. Actual elevation is 

 but slight, as shown by the Gulf rivers within Queensland, which 

 are not cutting down their channels, but before entering the sea» 

 run for hundreds of miles as shallow, wdde watercourses filled with 

 sand. 



2. North Queensland has been a continental area, or an area 

 affected only by isostatic earth inovements, since the Carboniferous'. 



Mesas of Permo-Carboniferons sandstone lying almost horizontal 

 survive at Mt. Mulligan, between the Walsh and Mitchell Rivers, 

 and in the peninsula west of Cooktown. These are often almost 

 conformably overlain by Jurassic rocks, and extensive flat-tops of. 

 Jurassic sandstone are also scattered thro'Ugh North Queensland. 

 These were fcrmerh' known as Desert Sandstone, but that term 

 is now obsolete as a name for a geological horizon. 



3. Laterites occur extensively in North Queensland as disjointed 

 cappings on table lands, but are disintegrating, which is evidence 

 of the climate getting wetter. 



4. Great areas of North Queensland have been faulted down 

 along the Pacific Coast in Tertiary times, and are now under the 

 Barrier Reef. 



5. River-captures are in progress. The coastal streams are 

 encroaching on the domain of the Gulf Rivers. 



6. The north of Queensland is from the physiographic stand- 

 point divisible into three divisions : 



A. The rncific Slopes, with high rainfall, rich soils, and rough 



topography. 



B. The 2lointfainous J/in/'/u/ Belt, with poor soil, medium rain- 



fall, rough, barren tcpography, and very rapid drainage. 



C. The Gulf Count ri/, which is roughly divisible into the same 



zones as the Northern Territory and has the same char- 

 acters. 

 To the A division belong the Cairns, Atherton, Herberton and 

 Cooktown districts. The Hodgkinscn, Irvinefcank, Featherbed and 

 Chillagoe belts belong to the B division, and the Einasleigh and 

 Croydon districts belong to the C Division. 



