87 



In the valleys between the sand ridges gravel beds were some- 

 times found, but generally only of a coarse sand, more ferrugin- 

 ous than that composing the sand-liills. These sand-hills, 

 ■especially N. and N.E. of Queen Victoria Spring, attain soinetimes 

 a height of 300 to 350 feet ; their trend being n(jt only here, but 

 all over the country passed through N.AV. S.E. 



Queen Victoria Spring is situated on the south-western 

 boundary of the drift-sand area of Central Australia. These 

 wind-drifted sand-hills reach their maximum in the sand-hills 

 north and east of this spring of royal name, perhaps for the 

 reason that as far as there the coastal winds of the Australian 

 Bight are in acticjn, counteracting the prevailing north-east winds 

 of the interior, and thus forcing them to drop their burden of 

 sand, causing in this way these immense accumulations spoken of 

 before. 



The height of Queen Victoria Spring is 830 feet above sea- 

 level, though it is not the lowest depression thereabouts. Some 

 10 miles from Camp 58, a small claypan was crossed, the height 

 of which was, according to the barometer, 700 feet abo^'e sea- 

 le\'el. The spring is situated at the base of these high sand-hills, 

 in the middle of a small loamy flat, and occupies a basin some 

 20 yards in diameter (see fig. 11, pi. 5). Its bottom consists of 

 a dark-blue clay. It does not deserve the name of a spring, but 

 is simply a strong soakage supplied by the drainage of the high 

 neighbouring sand-hills. 



Having left Queen Victoria Spring, the country changed re- 

 markably. Within the next 26 miles we ascended a ridge, 

 striking N.S., consisting of quartzite, slowly rising to a height of 

 1,200 feet above sea-level, abundantly covered with a fine brown 

 calcareous loam or loess and extensive patches of nodular traver- 

 tine limestone. 



In a deep valley which was ti'aversed afterwards (between 

 C. 62 and 63) granite and nietamorphic rocks were found 

 exposed, and also slates and schists cut through by a multitude of 

 f(uartz veins. 



After passing a salt lake between C. 61 and 62 the country rises 

 again, and quartzite- and granite-outcroppings are observable. 

 Apparently another range was traversed, the barometer showing 

 1,450 feet, and soon after that the hornblendic schists of the 

 Eraser Range were reached. This range is closely connected to- 

 wards N. and N.E. with the heights mentioned above ; but as 

 seen from the east it rises abruptly out of the plains. Its highest 

 elevation, called the Peak, is 2,010 feet high, and 765 above the 

 station hut. It is a sp)lendid stock country, with abundance of 

 well water. 



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