34 



tableland, whose surface is either stony or sandy, and whose edge 

 is terminated by a bluff escarpment over-looking the lower plains, 

 dotted with outlying detached flat-topped hills and patches of 

 formerly-connected taVjleland. 



IT. The Terraces. 



The second division of the county commences about eighty 

 miles south of the Macdonnell Ranges, and consists of a number 

 of parallel ranges of low altitude separated by broad valleys oi- 

 plains. Each range and plain to the northward being higher 

 than its neighbour to the south, their general aspect is that of a 

 series of terraces constantly rising wdth a gentle and impercep- 

 tible slope to the foot of the great plateau whose southern edge 

 forms the ridges collectively known as the Macdonnell Ranges. 



The two great creeks, the Hugh and the Finke, which rise in 

 the Macdonnells, run southward over this system of terraces and 

 junction just on the edge of the Great Plain. Each has a chan- 

 nel as broad as the Murray at Morgan, and throughout their 

 length the beds are filled with clean white sand as tine as that of 

 the sea-shore. Large gum trees grow thickly on either side 

 leaving only the mid-channel clear. 



Such is tlie character of the numerous watercourses, which are 

 marked on the maps as rivers, but whose real character is dis- 

 guised under an equivocal name compounded of its patronymic 

 and the definite article only. Thus we have not the River Finke, 

 River Goyder, ikc, but TJie Finke, TJte Goyder, The Macumba, 

 <fec., concerning which the observer must use his own intuitive 

 perception as to whether it is a river, nullah, or gorge. 



Water, whose presence might reasonably be expected on account 

 of the vigorous tree-grovv'th, is readily obtainable by sinking in 

 the sand, while at a few localities local circumstances cause tlic 

 water to appear at the surface, wiiere its presence is immediately 

 betrayed by a growth of rushes. 



Explorers' routes were, of course, along these creeks, and tlie 

 trade route naturally keeps in the same track. 



The Ranges, as a rule, are densely wooded from base to sum- 

 mit by Mulga-scrub, except in tliose situations where bare rock 

 ■or a cliff* face renders vegetation impossible. A fig-tree is met 

 with; and in the Finke channel below the Macdonnells, a glen 

 is so productive of a Livistona that it has been named the 

 " Glen of Palms." The plains between the ranges are mostly 

 •covered with mulga-scrub, comprising besides mulga, sheoak, 

 myall, Grevillea, Hakea, and a peculiar looking Eucalypt 

 (E. gamopliyUa), locally termed "apple tree." Tlie soil is 

 usually a sandy loam, fairly grassed, but v/]iere open spaces of 



