48 



one foot, but beyond that depth, although the quantity ex- 

 tracted be greatly increased, no further impression can be 

 made upon the supply. 



Tom's Well, which is also in the desert sandstone, is situated 

 on a flat among sandhills about ten miles in a southerly 

 direction from the head-station. The section of strata passed 

 through in descending order was twenty-three feet through 

 sand and clay, forty feet of desert sandstone, at which depth 

 water was obtained. A thin bed of ferruginous conglomerate 

 was afterwards pierced, from which the greatest amount of 

 water flowed. This water, though of fair quality for stock, is 

 rather salt for domestic purposes. 



The Deep Well is situated about five miles from the pre- 

 ceding one, on a flat among sandhills about twelve miles south 

 of the head-station, and about five miles distant in a north- 

 westerly direction from Tom's Well. This well penetrates 

 the desert sandstone 125 feet ; its waters are much the saitest 

 of any I have tasted in these parts of the north. A nodule of 

 galena was taken from the sandstone beds whilst the well was 

 in process of sinking. A borehole in progress some five to six 

 miles above the William Spring was visited, and some of the 

 clay which I secured from this sinking has been examined by 

 Mr. Howchin, F.G-.S., and has yielded some very interesting 

 microscopic forms, particulars of which I append to this paper. 

 Near this place I saw the spot where the fossil wood brought 

 down by me had been taken from. I also satisfied myself on 

 this occasion that the secondary strata, though obscured in the 

 greater part of the distance with sandhills, are continued beneath 

 them uninterruptedly from the borehole to William Creek. 



My next geological tour was north as far as Mount Mar- 

 garet. Erom the head station the first three or four miles of 

 the journey the surface of the country consists either of loose 

 sand or old rocks. In the middle of the plain — about four 

 miles from the head station — the latter appear on the surface 

 as a quartzite. The strike of these beds is about north and 

 south; dip, east. These quartzites constitute a slight rise 

 for a considerable distance north, and in one place showed in a 

 hill of much greater size. On the southern slopes of this name- 

 less hill the William Creek takes its rise in primary strata, 

 but the mesozoic strata put on long before the creek reaches 

 so far south as the William Spring. It would appear that the 

 desert sandstone is continued as far east as this hill, for about 

 four miles south-south-west from it water was found in a 

 well penetrating that rock. From the summit of the hill just 

 referred to we gradually descended to the Douglass, passing 

 chiefly over sandy country. Before we reached the bed of the 

 stream we came upon a patch of rock, overlying the old beds, 



