20 Dr. Fitton on the Geology of Australia. 



It is on the bank of the channel which separates Bathurst 

 and Melville Islands, near the north-eastern extremity of New- 

 Holland, that a new colony has recently been established: (see 

 Captain King's Narrative, vol. ii. p. 233.) A permanent sta- 

 tion under the superintendence of a British officer, in a coun- 

 try so very little known, and in a situation so remote from any 

 other English settlement, affords an opportunity of collecting 

 objects of natural history, and of illustrating various points of 

 great interest to physical geography and meteorology, which 

 it is to be hoped will not be neglected. And as a very instruc- 

 tive collection, for the general purposes of geology, can readily 

 be obtained in such situations, by attending to a few precau- 

 tions, I have thought that some brief directions on this sub- 

 ject would not be out of place in the present publication ; and 

 have subjoined them to the list of specimens at the close of 

 this paper. 



In the vicinity of Cambridge Gulf, Captain King states, the 

 character of the country is entirely changed; — and irregular 

 ranges of detached rocky hills composed of sand-stone, rising 

 abruptly from extensive plains of low level land, supersede 

 the low and woody coast, that occupies almost uninterruptedly 

 the space between this inlet and Cape Wessell, a distance of 

 more than six hundred miles. Cambridge Gulf, which is no- 

 thing more than a swampy arm of the sea, extends to about 

 eighty miles inland, in a southern direction : and all the spe- 

 cimens from its vicinity precisely resemble the older sand- 

 stones of the confines of England and Wales # . The View, 

 (vol. i. Plate, p. 301,) represents in the distance Mount Cock- 

 burn, at the head of Cambridge Gulf; the flat rocky top of 

 which was supposed to consist of sand-stone, but has also the 

 aspect of the trap-formation. The strata in Lacrosse Island, 

 at the entrance of the gulf, rise toward the north-west, — at an 

 angle of about 30° with the horizon : their direction conse- 

 quently being from north-east to south-west. 



From hence to Cape Londonderry, towards the south, is an 

 uniform coast of moderate elevation ; and from that point to 

 Cape Leveque, although the outline may be in a general view 

 considered as ranging from north-east to south-west f, the coast 

 is remarkably indented, and the adjoining sea irregularly 



* I use the term ' Old Red Sand Stone,' in the acceptation of Messrs. 

 Buckland and Conybeare, " Observations on the South Western Coal 

 District of England." Geol. Trans. 2nd Series, vol. i.— Captain King's spe- 

 cimens from Lacrosse Island are not to be distinguished from the slaty strata 

 of that formation, in the banks of the Avon, about two miles below Clifton. 



-f- The large chart (Sheet V.) best shows the general range of the shore, 

 from the islands filling up the inlets. 



Studded 



