101 



this level region was completely coated with, small freshwater 

 spiral shells o£ two different kinds. The shells referred to are 

 exclusively terrestrial in habit, and may be found living in the 

 midst of their progenitors. 



To illustrate the steady gradient which the land surface 

 presents in a northerly direction, I have constructed a hori- 

 zontal section from Mallabie to the coast, bearing five degrees 

 west of south-west (true), and in length thirteen miles; also 

 another from the same place bearing true north-west for thirty- 

 three miles. The inland station is thirty-one miles due north 

 from the coast. The aneroid observations between the coast 

 and Mallabie were taken on a journey occupying three and a 

 half hours, and corrected give the elevation of Mallabie at 217 

 feet above sea level (or 85 feet above sand-lij)), or 95 feet 

 above the general level of cliff, corresponding to a rise of 

 .seven and four- thirteenths feet per mile ; but referred to a 

 datum line striking the coast at its nearest point the grade is 

 ten and five-ninths feet per mile. 



The aneroid readings on the traverse north-west from 

 Mallabie are not very reliable, as the barometric disturbances 

 on the second and following days out were very great ; never- 

 theless, they give a gradient in a direct line from the coast of 

 nine feet per mile ; the elevation of the interior station being 

 460 feet above sea level. 



Another traverse from the head of the Bight to Pidinga 

 shows much the same surface features, excepting that all the 

 higher parts of the undulating ground are composed of loose 

 sand — being the fringes of the sandy and scrubby rises which 

 bound the Plateau on the east. 



The united testimony of those who have penetrated some 

 miles beyond the coast, and applies to the country included 

 within the meridians of Eucla and Ooldea water for a distance 

 of 100 miles, is that the Bunda Plateau is level, treeless, and 

 devoid of stream courses. The opinions touching the aridity 

 of the country are not so unanimous, but the extreme opinions 

 have doubtlessly been formed from observations made at the 

 most and least favourable conditions for vegetable growth. 

 The same explorer would report very differently as to the 

 aspect of the vegetation immediately after copious rains, and 

 after successive seasons of drought, which most observers seem 

 agreed as characteristic of the Bunda Plateau. 



In the treeless region the traveller has ever around him an 

 ignis fatuus in the form of distant hills clothed with lofty 

 pines. So uniformly level is the surface that his view does not 

 extend beyond a radius of four miles. The hills are, of course, 

 never reached, but the pines dwindle in size as they are ap- 

 proached, and the eye, now no longer deceived by atmospheric 



