Natural History on the Lower Murray. 129 



the station there belonging to the brothers H. and B. Jamieson, 

 I made an excursion of twenty-five miles to the north into the 

 untrodden district of Eastern 'Australia. The panorama which 

 there presented itself to my view from the summit of a high hill, 

 called by me Mount Jamieson, was grand. The whole horizon 

 was closed in with high blue mountains and picturesque hills, 

 and my feelings then can only be understood by one, who himself 

 has been on the verge of civilization, fin this case 700 milesfromMel- 

 bourne), and gazed into the unknown wilds expanding before him. 



III. Concerning the geological features of the country, I have 

 but little information to give to some of you, as beyond the 

 dividing ranges, with the exception of coarse grained granite at 

 Mount Hope and Pyramid Hill, nothing peculiar exists on Vic- 

 torian ground along the Lower Murray, but a pale yellow 

 mallee sandstone, which is superseded from the junction of the 

 Murrumbidgee to the Darling by brown colored ferruginous 

 sandstone, and in the neighbourhood of the latter place by a 

 dirty, yellow limestone, like sandstone, which appears to form 

 the connecting link with the Murray limestone cliffs at Overland 

 corner. I was not able to discover any fossils in Victoria, but 

 thousands of the most beautifid in form are washed out of their 

 original matrix on the South Australian side of the river. The 

 hard outside crust of the fossils has resisted the action of the 

 water and atmosphere to a surprising degree, and shows the most 

 elegant forms imaginable in a perfect state of preservation. 



Nothing remarkable besides this appeared to me, except at 

 Mount Murchison the zig-zag, rugged, projecting rocks, appa- 

 rently of the Silurian era. The quartzose sandstone, admirably 

 adapted for millstones will at some future period supply this 

 article to this colony. The natives obtain their supply in this 

 respect from here, and within a radius of 600 miles get furnished 

 .from this district with stones for grinding various, seeds. 

 This is the district of which the natives gave Captain Sturt 

 the account (generally believed to be fabulous) " That the sharply 

 pointed stones and great rocks would fall down upon and crush 

 visitors, and that even if they escaped from this danger, they 

 would be killed by the heat, and that neither grass, water, nor 

 wood are to be met with ; that the wells are very deep, and that 

 the cattle are unable to chink out of them, and, finally, that the 

 water is salt, and that the natives chop down bundles of rushes 

 to soak it up. This is no fiction but reality, described in the 

 original language of the natives as relating to Mount Murchison. 



IV In the Kiver Murray and also in Reedy Lake, I have 

 found sweetwater sponges in great quantities. I am not aware 



