118 Secondary Beds of Northern Australia. 



parallel of the 140° of the east longitude, and between south 

 latitudes 19° and 21°. 



The object of the journey was to examine the outcrop of 

 copper ore, discovered on the head-waters of the Cloncurry 

 river in latitude 20° 42' south. The appended sketch-map 

 shows the route followed, and the section is intended to 

 represent the outline and character of the formations on the 

 line travelled over. 



This section of country may be divided into three parts : 

 — first, the coast lands, and the belt of high table land con- 

 stituting the coast range ; second, the wide valley west of 

 the coast range known as the Flinders Plains ; and, third, 

 the hilly country bounding the Flinders Plains on the 

 west, known as the M'Kinlay Ranges. 



In this portion of eastern Australia, the coast range 

 approaches close to the sea, and the high rugged islands off 

 the coast, together with the spurs and outlying hills between 

 the eastern escarpment of the range and the present coast 

 line, shows that the sea has made extensive inroads into the 

 eastern side of the table-land. 



Near Cleveland Bay, the main range is between twenty 

 and thirty miles from the sea ; the intervening country con- 

 sisting of gently rising plains ; broken by spurs running at 

 right angles to the range, and detached hills rising abruptly 

 from the low ground. 



On the eastern face, the main range presents a bold and 

 rugged front, between 2,000 and 3,000 feet in height, so 

 precipitous that the existence of the small settlements on 

 the coast generally depends on the discovery of a practicable 

 road up this face, to enable a trade to be carried on with 

 the interior. 



The amount of denudation effected by the streams running 

 through these coast plains is not so great as to indicate the 

 lapse of any long period of time since their elevation above 

 the sea, and a small depression of the land would convert the 

 hills into a bold, rocky coast with deep bays and inlets. 



From the summit of the range the ground falls towards 

 theBurdekinHiver, which is crossed at a distance of seventy- 

 five miles from the coast. ' Beyond the Burdekin the 

 country rises gradually for about one hundred miles to the 

 ridge forming the water-shed to the interior. 



The total width of this table-land running parallel with 

 the east coast is over two hundred miles. It is traversed 

 from north-west to south-east by the great longitudinal 



