136 Dr. Fitton on the Geology of Australia. 



to the shore between Spencer's Gulf and Cape Howe. But it 

 must not be forgotten, that the distance between these shores 

 is more than a thousand miles in a direct line; — about as far 

 as from the west coast of Ireland to the Adriatic, or double 

 the distance between the Baltic and the Mediterranean. — If, 

 however, future researches should confirm the indications above 

 mentioned, a new case will be supplied in support of the prin- 

 ciple long since advanced by Mr. Michell*, which appears 

 (whatever theory be formed to explain it,) to be established by 

 geological observation in so many other parts of the world, — 

 that the outcrop of the inclined beds, throughout the stratified 

 portion of the globe, is every where parallel to the longer 

 ridges of mountains, — towards which, also, the elevation of 

 the strata is directed. But in the present state of our informa- 

 tion respecting Australia, all such general views are so very 

 little more than mere conjecture, that the desire to furnish 

 ground for new inquiry, is, perhaps, the best excuse that can 

 be offered for having proposed them. 



Detailed List of Specimens. 



The specimens mentioned in the following list have been 

 compared with some of those of England and other countries, 

 principally in the cabinets of the Geological Society, and of 

 Mr. Greenough ; and with a collection from part of the con- 

 fines of the primitive tracts of England and North Wales, 

 formed by Mr. Arthur Aikin, and now in his own possession. 

 Captain King's collection has been presented to the Geological 

 Society; and duplicates of Mr. Brown's specimens are deposited 

 in the British Museum. 



Rodd's Bay, on the East Coast, discovered by Capt. King, 

 about sixty miles south of Cape Capricornf. — Reddish sand- 

 stone, of moderately-fine grain, resembling that which in Eng- 

 land occurs in the coal formation, and beneath it (mill-stone 

 grit). A sienitic compound, consisting of a large proportion 



two, accords with this hypothesis of mountain ranges : but the distance 

 between these recesses, over the land at the nearest points, is not less than 

 a thousand English miles. — The granite, on the south coast, at Investigator's 

 Islands, — and westward, at Middle Island, Cape Le Grand, King George's 

 Sound, and Cape Naturaliste, is very wide of the line above mentioned, and 

 nothing is yet known of its relations. 



* On the Cause of Earthquakes. — Philosophical Transactions, 1760, 

 voLli. p. 566-585,586. 



f In Captain King's collection are also specimens found on the beach at 

 Port Macquarie, and in the bed of the Hastings River, of common ser- 

 pentine, and of botryoidal magnesite, from veins in serpentine. The mag- 

 nesite agrees nearly with that of Baudissero, in Piedmont. (See Cleave- 

 Jand's Mineralogy, 1st edition, p. 345.) 



of 



