386 VISIT MOUNT FAIRFAX. 



bed of a stream, trending S. by E. about twenty 

 yards wide, with banks from twenty to thirty feet 

 high, composed of reddish earth and sand, having 

 considerable portions of ironstone in it. A few 

 small tea-trees of the colonists grew in the sand 

 that formed the dry bed of the stream. Our course 

 continued afterwards uninterrupted, over a gradually 

 rising plain, of a sandy scrubby nature, until reach- 

 ing the foot of Mount Fairfax, when we crossed 

 another small water-course, trending S. by W. 

 where, for the first time, we noticed a solitary 

 stunted casuarina. Mount Fairfax is the southern 

 and most elevated part of an isolated block, forming 

 Moresby's Flat-topped Range ; it rests on a reddish, 

 sandy, sloping plain, on which were occasionally 

 noticed fragments of quartz and ironstone, which 

 latter formation is the character of Mount Fairfax, 

 and apparently of the neighbouring heights. Hav- 

 ing completed our observations, which place Mount 

 Fairfax 58^ feet above the level of the sea, we 

 continued our journey to the south-east, in the 

 direction of Wizard Peak. Two miles, over a 

 scrubby sandy plain, brought us again to the Chap- 

 man or Greenough. Here, for the first time, there 

 was an appearance of fertility ; but only in the 

 valley of the river, which was about a quarter of a 

 mile wide. 



With the exception of a few brackish pools, the 

 bed, as where we before crossed it, was dry, and 

 formed of white sand, growing in which was a small 



