478 NORTHMOST AUSTRALIA 



In the far north of the Cape York Peninsula, as will be here- 

 after seen, the upper beds of the formation assume an entirely- 

 different aspect. 



There are very few shaly beds among the sandstones, On 

 the north side of the estuary of the Endeavour, however, some shales 

 are seen crowded with plant debris. Indistinct plant remains have 

 also been met with on Jessie's Tableland. Thin (f inch) COAL-SEAMS 

 occur on the North Shore, near Cooktown, and in Temple Bay. 



On I Stb August, viz, left Mr. Starcke's camp, after improving a 

 cutting through the scrub on the banks of the MORGAN RIVER 

 for the passage of the pack-horses. This river and the MclvoR are 

 clothed with a luxuriant tropical SCRUB. Tall, dark trees throw a 

 perennial cool shade over the rapid stream. Their dense foliage is 

 pierced by no ray of light ; but the slender stems of lofty palms 

 shoot up through the leafy mass and wave their graceful heads above 

 it. The spaces between the trunks of the larger trees are choked 

 with a tangled mass of vegetation, including nutmeg trees, canes, 

 plantains, the graceful but formidable lawyer vine, and the large 

 heart-shaped stinging tree, whose lightest touch is agonising to 

 man and often fatal to horses. 



A period subsequent to the denudation of the valleys in the 

 horizontal sandstone has been marked by great VOLCANIC ACTIVITY, 

 whose effects are seen in great masses of BASALT. The basalt has 

 emanated for the most part from VOLCANIC CENTRES, which occur 

 generally in the form of dome-shaped unwooded eminences near 

 the heads of the valleys denuded out of the sandstone tableland. 

 Conspicuous among these are the " SISTERS " at the head of the 

 Endeavour, the " PIEBALD MOUNTAIN," MOUNT MORGAN, etc. 

 These hills do not possess a crateriform appearance, but are mere 

 rises marking the sites of the lava-eruptions which have spread 

 around them when situated on level ground, or escaped in glacier- 

 like coulees down the valleys. The points of eruption bear, in fact, 

 such relations to the lava flows as the similar foci in Auvergne bear 

 to the basalt there. Coulees of BASALTIC LAVA have flowed from 

 the foci above referred to down the valleys of the north and south 

 forks of the Endeavour River, and have radiated out from Mount 

 Morgan and other centres to the east and north over the flats 

 between the mountains and the sea, where they form, by their 

 decomposition, a chocolate-coloured soil of great depth, peculiarly 

 fitted for tropical agriculture and at present supporting grasses 

 of very unusually fattening qualities. 



Where the basalt has decomposed into soil on the spot, it gives 

 rise to open, well-grassed country, almost bare of trees. But where, 

 on the other hand, the soil has been redeposited in alluvial flats on 

 the sides of the river courses, it is usually darker in colour, and 

 covered by the dense scrubby vegetation already referred to. 



The surfaces of the basalt coulees, as well as of the dome-shaped 



