24 



Notes on the Physical and Geologic ax- 

 Features OF THE Basin of the Lo^wer 

 Murray River. 



By Peofessoe Ealph Tate, P.a.S., E.L.S., &c. 



Plate HI. 



[Eead June 3 and July 1, 1884.] 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction. Sections of the Older Tertiary or 



Physical Features of the Murray Murravian. 



Plateau. Paleontology of the Older Tertiary. 



Hydrographical Notes. Sections of the Newer Tertiary. 



Eiver Alluvium. Leading Botanical Features. 

 Origin of the Gorge. 



I^s'TEODTJCTION. 



Captain Charles Sturt entered wliat is now Soufh Australian 

 territory towards the end of January, 1829, and navigated the 

 river Murray to its mouth. His published observations* 

 remain to this day the only connected account of the physical 

 and geological features of the Lower Murray-river. 



" A Study about the Kiver Murray" is the title of a paper 

 read before this Society July 3, iS83, and of a pamphlet, 

 privately printed, by Mr. S. Pollitzer. That work deals essen- 

 tially with river hydraulics, though some geological matters 

 are introduced. 



Facts in support of a large loss of water of the river by 

 subterranean drainage are put forth by Mr. Eawlinson in 

 Trans. Eoy. Soc. S. Aust., vol. I., pp. 124-126, 1878, and by 

 myself in vol. IV., pp. 132-133, 1881. 



The purely geological works and papers treating of the area 

 under review are few. Firstly, there are the above-quoted 

 volumes by Sturt, upon which Tenison-Woods, in his "Geo- 

 logical Observations in South Australia," 1862, has largely 

 drawn for his disconnected account of the geological features 

 of the Murray-river. My own efforts in this connection have 

 been of a fragmentary kind, and will be found at the following 

 references : — " Strata Exposed in the Government Well, 

 Murray Plains," Geological Magazine, November, 1877; 

 *' Correlation of the Coral-bearing Strata in South Australia," 

 Trans. Eoy. Soc. S. Aust., vol. I., 1878 ; " Correlation of the 

 Older Tertiary deposits of South Austi'alia," id. vol. XL, pp. li.- 



* Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia ; 2 vols. 1834;* 



