14 VALLEY OF THE HUNTER. [CH. I. 



During the day's route, wo traversed the valley of the 

 river Hunter, an extensive tract of country, different from 

 that mountainous region from Avhich I had descended, inas- 

 much as it consists of low undulating land, thinly wooded, 

 and bearing, in most parts, a good crop of grass. 



Portions of the surface near Mr. Blaxland's establish- 

 ment, bore that peculiar, undulating character which appears 

 in the southern districts, where it closely resembles furrows, 

 and is termed " ploughed ground." This appearance usually 

 indicates a good soil, which is either of a red or very dark 

 colour, and in which small portions of trap-rock, but more 

 frequently concretions of indurated marl, are found. Coal 

 appears in the bed and banks of the Wollonibi, near Mr. 

 Blaxland's station, and at no great distance from his farm 

 is a salt spring, also in the bed of this brook. The waters 

 in the lesser tributaries, on the north bank of the river 

 Hunter, become brackish when the current ceases. In that 

 part of the bed of this river, which is nearest to the Wol- 

 lombi (or to " Wambo' rather), I found an augitic rock, 

 consisting of a mixture of felspar and augite. Silicificd 

 fossil wood of a coniferous tree, is found abundantly in the 

 plains, and in rounded pebbles in the banks and bed of the 

 river, also chalcedony and compact brown haematite. A hill 

 of some height on the right bank, situate twenty-six miles 

 from the sea shore, is composed chiefly of a volcanic grit of 

 greenish grey colour, consisting principally of felspar, and 

 being in some parts slightly, in other parts highly calcareous 

 when the rock assumes a compact aspect. This deposit con- 

 tains numerous fossil shells, consisting chiefly of four dis- 

 tinct species of a new genus, nearest to hippopodium ; also 

 a new species of trochvs ; ntrijpa glabra, and spirifer, a 

 shell occurring also in older limestones of En"land.* 



• These shells having liccn submitted to i'Mr. James Dc Carl Sowerliy, T .niii 

 indebted to that peiitleman for the following df-;crii)tioii. 



Class Conchifcru. Order, Dimi/aria. Genus, Megndesmiis. 

 Valves equal, inequilateral, thick, their edges even ; umbones nearly ceu- 



