62 



minor outliers, it attains very nearly the same altitude above 

 sea level for the entire distance, presenting as it were a 

 serrated outline along the western base of the Grawler hills. 

 The three exceptions to this general rule, which have come 

 under my notice, occur within the district, viz., in Smith's 

 Creek, and two other minor gullies. These outliers are found 

 resting far within the general profile of ■ the western escarp- 

 ment of the range, and have an elevation of about 550 feet 

 above sea level ; whilst the maximum height of the main field 

 of these deposits is about 150 feet less. 



Denudation since the Deposition of the Drift. — The existence 

 of these detached masses demonstrates the vast extent of denu- 

 dation that the Drift has been subjected to. In short, when 

 we consider that these outliers formed once an integral part of 

 the_ deposit of the neighbourhood, and also the difference of 

 their level over that of the main sheet, we cannot help infer- 

 ring that denudation since the era of the deposition of the 

 Drift must have abraded from the western slopes of the Munno 

 Para Hills material to the extent of at least 150 or 200 feet in 

 vertical measurement. 



Depth and Water Supply.— The mean depth of the formation, 

 so far as I am aware, has not yet been ascertained. IS T o shaft 

 or bore has been put down in any part of the district, unless 

 in search of water, the line of which, over that portion termed 

 the lower plain, can be pretty accurately determined from the 

 rise and fall of the surface. The water, though often not good, 

 is obtained in many instances at the depth of a few feet from 

 the surface, whilst in the neighbourhood of the Grawler 

 Eailway Station it is not reached at a less depth than from 

 seventy to eighty feet (and in one well in the immediate vicinity 

 the water is very salt). The water obtained from wells in 

 G-awler South and West is generally of very good quality ; at 

 present, however, I cannot speak authoritatively of the character 

 of the potable water bearing stratum, but that of the saline one 

 is immediately under a bed of highly water-worn pebbles, from 

 the size of a man's head to that of a pigeon's egg, conglomerated 

 imperfectly together by an incoherent arenaceo-argillaceous 

 paste. 



Though the water-line, throughout the lower reaches of the 

 plain, can be pretty much depended upon, yet no such 

 regularity prevails in the upper. As an instance of such 

 irregularity I may mention that the water-line immediately 

 around the Smithfield Eailway Station does not exceed fourteen 

 feet ; whereas at the Inn, about 600 yards distant, it is upwards 

 of seventy feet, the difference of surface level being less than 

 twenty-five feet, and of the water-line of the wells more than 

 thirty feet. Besides the difference in level their is a difference 



