242 PROCEEDINGS OP SECTION C. 



Eyre ; in consequence of this the fall of the rivers is very 

 gradual, and in many cases their beds are level ; this is proved 

 in a curious way in the case of the Warry Warry, a creek 

 in Queensland, which flows into the Cooper, above Innaminka, 

 as rain which falls at its head in the Grey Range flows north- 

 wards into Cooper's Creek, while flood water from the Cooper 

 and Wilson flow southward for some distance towards the Grey 

 Range. Again, when the Cooper is in flood, which happens 

 at intervals of two or three years, the water overflows southwards 

 down the Strzelecki Ci'eek into Lake Blanche, northward into 

 Lake Goyder, and south-westward into Lake Hope. The country 

 presents several aspects as regards contour and general appearance 

 according to the nature of the overlying Tertiary and other upper- 

 most beds. These may be summed up under the heads of Table- 

 hills, Tablelands, Stony Downs and Plains, Silt-flats and Sandhills^ 



The Tableland and Tablehill country occupy a large area in 

 many places, as in the north-east corner of the colony. The general 

 elevation above the plains is about one hundred to two hundred and 

 fifty feet, the upper bed is almost invariably a yellow flinty jasper 

 rock, or porcelainized sandstone and quartzite, varying in thickness 

 up to thirty or forty feet, sometimes it is a conglomerate, and at 

 other times a sandstone ; it rests on sandstone, argillaceous sand- 

 stone, kaolin, and grit, with thin bands of a loose pebble con- 

 glomerate. The pebbles found in the conglomerate consist of agate, 

 jasper, chalcedony, opal, coloured quartz, flint, white and crystallized 

 quartz, and fossil wood, all showing a brilliant polish or glaze. 



As these Table-hills generally have sharp well-defined clifi^s and 

 escarpments, the stratification can be easily studied. Tliey are 

 either of Upper Cretaceous or Lower Tertiary age, and rest 

 directly on the upjDer beds of the Cretaceous Formation, in 

 horizontal and sometimes gently inclined layers ; their composition 

 and arrangement is the same over wide areas in South Austi'alia, 

 New South Wales, and Qiieensland, as far east as the Warrego 

 River, where I have had an opportunity of examining them. The 

 topmost bed of jasper rock has generally a conchoidal fracture 

 and amorphous structure, although sometimes containing gi'ains of 

 sand, and pebbles, and becoming a conglomerate ; it also occurs as 

 rounded fragments and pebbles of yellow jasper rock cemented 

 together in masses with glazed surfaces. 



The Stony Downs are undulating and level plains, flanking the 

 table-lands and extending for miles over the country, and covered 

 with blocks and pebbles of the flinty jasper and other siliceous 

 rock, with sometimes vein quartz, slate and sandstone ; these 

 fragments of rock are scattered over the surface of the plains and 

 rest on soft yellow and reddish clay loam, derived from the 

 denudation of the underlying shales. In many places the ground is 

 covered with a smooth pavement-like covering of glazed fragments 



