94 



The Natural History of the Country 

 around the head of the great 

 Australian Bight. 



By Professor Balph Tate, Assoc. Liu. Soc, E.Gr.S.., Corr. 



Meinb. Soy. Soc. Tasmania, Acad. Sc. Philadelphia, &c, &c, 



President. 



Contents : 



1. Natural Divisions of the Country around the Head of the Bight. 



2. Boundaries of the Bunda Plateau. 



3. Previous Explorations in, and writer's route. 



4. Form of the Ground of the Bunda Plateau. 



5. Geology of the Bunda Plateau. 



(1.) Introduction. 



(2.) Bange of the Older Tertiary Escarpment. 

 (3.) Geological Sections of Older Tertiary. 

 (4.) Minor Features. 



6. The Newer Tertiaries around the Head of the Great Bight. 



7. Meteorology of the Bunda Plateau. 



8. Botanical Features of the Bunda Plateau. 



9. Sketch of Zoology of the Bunda Plateau. 



10. Marine Conchology around the Head of the Bight. 



Natural Divisions of the Country around the Head of 

 the Bight. 

 The western portion of the country which lies around the 

 Head of the Great Australian Bight is almost a terra incognita 

 to the naturalist, though its topography is fairly known. 

 Because of its unique structure, and co-ordinate peculiarities in 

 its fauna and flora, it claims our chief interest. The eastern 

 portion is not devoid of interest, hut it lacks the novelty of 

 isolation and inhospitality ; its leading characters are those of 

 the whole region extending to Spencer's Gulf. In this paper 

 I confine myself almost exclusively to the western portion, to 

 which I have given the name of the Bunda Plateau, hut inci- 

 dental references are made to the other. 



Boundaries of the Bunda Plateau. 

 They are on the south, the line of perpendicular sea-cliffs 

 which stretch in an unhroken and inaccessible wall, commencing 

 at three miles west from the Head of the Great Australian 

 Bight to the headland called "Wilson's Bluff, on the frontier of 

 West Australia, and having a frontage of a straight line of 



