29 



The surface soil of all these hills is a deep brown or red clay^ 

 very fertile ; in fact, a great part is the famous Bay of Biscay 

 soil. Here and there, where thin, it is mixed with stones, the 

 fragments of the base rocks. The higher ridges are usually 

 -crowned by soft travertine in patches, gradually broken up, re- 

 moved, and the ground turned into wheatfields. 



Of the above rocky and hilly character is all that eastern part 

 of the district of Nuriootpa between the river in the east and 

 Rosenthal in the south, and the Nuriootpa Flat and Daveyston 

 in the north, developing further on into the Mappa Hills north- 

 eastward of Greenock and the Belvidere Ranges west, the whole 

 of this part of the district — besides the very narrow strip along 

 the river — being drained by the Salt Creek and the smaller New 

 Mecklenburg Creek. The former having received its name from 

 the saline character of its numerous small but permanent springs 

 in the lower two-thirds of its course. 



At the foot of this hilly region in the west extends a wdde flat, 

 the surface formed of red or yellow clay, and below of the same 

 kind of sandy calcareous loam or marl, forming the precipitous 

 banks of the Torrens at the Botanic Bridge. It dries loose in 

 ummer, deep cracks forming in many parts, and when heavy 

 showers give rise to sudden floods deep crevices are formed in a 

 short time. 



West of this flat, which formerly was almost wholly covered by 

 dense mallee growth of w^hich but small remnants are left, the 

 land rises into gentle undulations, the surface covered by red 

 clay and Bay of Biscay ground. The neighbourhood of the river, 

 is flanked by hills of the old rocks on both sides, while the sum- 

 mits and sides bear mostly the same covering of red clay. 



