84 
of the desert in which it stands, forms one of a remarkable 
series of three conspicuous landmarks situated north of the 
Musgrave Ranges ; the other two being known as Ayers Rock 
and Mount Olga. Mount Conner, rising abruptly from the 
surrounding desert, is a huge, table-topped outlier of a once 
continuous extensive geological formation. The base of the 
mount has a circumference of about six miles, while the plat- 
eau itself is roughly two miles long by three-quarters broad. 
It is surrounded on all sides by a talus, having an angle of 
repose of from 30 to 35 degrees ; above the talus an abrupt es- 
carpment rises to the edge of the plateau, a vertical distance 
of about 250 to 300 feet. With the exception of one or two 
pine trees the escarpment is practically destitute of vegeta- 
tion. 
The rock is a close-grained, compact, siliceous quartzite. 
The beds show a pronounced horizontal parting, correspond- 
ing with the original planes of bedding, and the rock is in 
portions sub-fissile and fractured, the cracks and crevices 
affording shelter for numerous hawks and owls. 
The topmost layers of the rock are composed of a glossy, 
white, hard quartzite, while the lower portions assume a 
softer, arenaceous character, and are stained red by precipi- 
tated products of decomposition. In places the quartzite con- 
tains irregular bands of well-rounded pebbles of altered sedi- 
mentary rock (banded and black quartzite), producing locally 
a conglomerate. Peculiar false-bedding-like markings are 
found, not infrequently surrounding these conglomeritic por- 
tions, and the quartzite contains segmented ferruginous 
segregations, which are not altogether unlike orp^anic remains. 
The strike of tlie rock varies from west up to 30° north of 
v/est, the beds forming a shallow synclinal fold. Portions of 
the quartzite are shattered into small blocks, fairly regularly 
bounded by conchoidal surfaces, huge masses being m cases 
thus reduced to fragments, lying loosely together in a state 
of unstable equilibrium. This phenomenon is a direct result 
of insolation. (Plate xiv., fig. 2.) Mount Conner 
is surrounded by low, rugged outcrops and 
ridges of fissile quartzite, "covered with dense 
mulga" and "marked by a low cliff. "^ The quartzite is band- 
ed, and weathers into large flat slabs. The strike varies. 
The Mount Kingston Outcrop. — Mount Kingston is 
situated west of Mount Watt, the portion of a southern Or- 
dovician outcrop that was examined by Messrs. Tate and 
* W. H. Tietken.s: Jouni. Cent. Austr. Expl. Exped.. 1889, 
page 59. 
