MOUNT REMARKABLE 103 



arrangement of the elevated parts of this strange land. 

 To give a reasonably lucid description of them, they must 

 be described in detail. 



In the immediate neighbourhood of Port Augusta 

 there is absolutely nothing worth a line of description. 

 There is not a tamer or more uninteresting tract in all 

 Australia ; and that will scarcely be wondered at when it 

 is stated that most of the land was originally a mud flat. 

 There is not a tree, shrub, or flower, or even a blade of 

 grass, on this land that has not been planted there ; or, at 

 any rate, the few weeds that have found a rooting-place 

 there have only recently come, seed-blown before the 

 desert blast. 



One of the most remarkable mountains in the district 

 is a nearly detached mass which, correctly enough, bears 

 this very name, " Remarkable." It is the terminal outpost 

 of the Flinder's range, and is in full view of the road just 

 outside Port Augusta, distant some thirty-six or thirty- 

 seven miles. From the south, however, it is visible to a 

 traveller nearly sixty miles from its base. On all sides 

 except the east it is shut in by the lower wooded slopes of 

 the Flinder's range. On the east it rises abruptly from 

 the almost dead level of the plain, a precipitous wall of 

 rock which, in most places, is nearly perpendicular. A few 

 buttresses project from its face, which is also seared with 

 many deep and rugged ravines ; but it is only here and 

 there that a clump of trees or bushes find it possible to 

 obtain a hold for their roots. When there is rain, water 

 runs down these ravines in fierce torrents ; but I could not 

 discover any permanent stream. 



The wood on some of the hills has a singular 

 appearance. It consists, mostly, of stunted miall bushes, 

 which are scattered about at nearly regular intervals, 

 giving the hill, from a distance, the appearance of a huge 

 plum-pudding. Other hills are better clothed with timber ; 

 but many of them, like Mount Remarkable, are almost 

 bare rock. The range, generally, is flat topped, but there 

 are some sharp-pointed peaks. None of the trees on the 

 hills are of great size, and the low ground is everywhere 



