130 Remarks on the Physical Geography , ^c, of the 



this line of division tliat water may be more easily found. 

 For a width of ten miles, along the edge of the scrub, the 

 undulating country is very good, abounding with grass, herbs, 

 and many varieties of saltbush. No better fattening country 

 could be found anywhere, especially for sheep. 



Our course was now northerly, along the edge of the fine 

 open country. On our right vast plains stretched eastward to 

 the horizon, and on our left was the higher ground of the mal- 

 ice, into the irregular bends or indentations of which shallow 

 watercourses from the plains frequently enter, and terminate 

 in depressed hollows or gullies. 



For eleven miles we were evidently rising higher above the 

 level of the sea. The country has a general slope from the 

 north-east towards the south-west. This remark, I believe, 

 will be found correct in reference to the whole of that exten- 

 sive region. So far as my own observation goes, this is 

 plainly discernible by the eye ; and, I believe, the table of the 

 registrations of the aneroid and of its attached thermometer 

 will prove the opinion as correct. 



Farther north, about eleven miles, we come to the Head 

 Winter Station, occupied by Mr. Ross. Having been kindly 

 invited to rest our horses for a few days, we spent the 

 time in examining the locality, and in drying a quantity of 

 meat. 



A number of men were here engaged in excavating a very 

 large tank, twelve feet in depth. They told me that they fre- 

 quently came upon masses of shells, like oyster shells. I 

 could not find any, but I picked up a few curiously shaped 

 pieces of lime, resembling teeth of animals, and pieces of roots 

 of plants. The upright side of the tank, twelve feet high, 

 exhibited a blue clay, in small hard angular pieces, and much 

 mixed with lime-earth and limestone gravel. 



Having previously heard from the superintendent of the 

 station, that strata of sandstone rock were to be met with, 

 within a few miles of the station, I felt very anxious to find 

 them, but no one on the station knew anything about the 

 subject; and^ although we searched for the locality, we did 

 not succeed in finding it. I, however, saw several specimens. 

 It is not a ferruginous sandstone like the coarse sandstone 

 found on the Murray, but is very hard and compact, and, in 

 its general character and colour, resembles closely the sand- 

 stone of the coal formation on the eastern coast of Australia. 

 In such places good water might be found without sinking to 

 any great depth. Even to some distance from where the 



