146 New South Wales. paet i. 



CHAPTER YIL 



New South Wales — Sandstone formation — Embedded pseudo-frag- 

 ments of shale — Stratification — Current-cleavage — Great valleys 

 — Van Diemerts Land — Palaeozoic formation — Newer formation 

 with volcanic rocks — Travertin with leaves of extinct plants — 

 Elevation of the land — New Zealand — King George's Sound — 

 Superficial ferruginous beds — Superficial calcareous deposits, with 

 casts of branches — Their origin from drifted particles of shells and 

 corals — Their exten, 1 : — Cape of Good Hope — Junction of the granite 

 and clay -slate — Sandstone formation. 



The Beagle, in her homeward voyage, touched at New 

 Zealand, Australia, Van Diem en's Land, and the Cape 

 of Good Hope. In order to confine the Second Part of 

 these Geological Observations to South America, I will 

 here briefly describe all that I observed at these places 

 worthy of the attention of geologists. 



New South Wales. — My opportunities of observa- 

 tion consisted of a ride of ninety geographical miles to 

 Bathurst, in a TVXW. direction from Sydney. The 

 first thirty miles from the coast passes over a sandstone 

 country, broken up in many places by trap-rocks, and 

 separated by a bold escarpment overhanging the river 

 Xepean, from the great sandstone platform of the Blue 

 Mountains. This upper platform is 1,000 feet high at 

 the edge of the escarpment, and rises in a distance of 

 twenty-five miles to between 3,000 and 4,000 feet above 

 the level of the sea. At this distance the road descends 

 to a country rather less elevated, and composed in chief 

 part of primary rocks. There is much granite, in one 

 part passing into a red porphyry with octagonal 



