90 WATER SUPPLY IN THE INTERIOR OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
whole of the interior of New South Wales. The plains consist 
almost wholly of two sortsof soil, which inthe most widely separated 
places are found to possess the same distinctive characteristics. 
One which constitutes about three-fourths of the whole watershed 
of the Darling in New South Wales is a red clay with a very 
rally liable to be flooded wet seasons, the red soil being 
rarely, if ever, covered to any de or extent by the over- 
flow fr i This black or greyish black soil, when 
two kinds of country, there are stretches of sandy country having 
the same general level as the rest of the plains. The blac soil 
overlying both the red soil and the sands. Wherever wells have 
been sunk in the black soil country, either the red soil or the sand 
reference to each other. I believe they are contemporaneous, an 
may be found passing under or over each other indiscriminately. 
Owing to the kindness of Mr. James Doyle, of Invermein, 
Scone, I have been able to obtain samples of both the red and 
black soils for analysis. I had some hope that the analysis, or @ 
microscopical examination of the samples kindly made by Mr. C. 8. 
Wilkinson, would have thrown some light on the origin of both 
these formations ; but all that has been shown is that both soils, 
though very different in appearance, are similar in constitution, 
and the black soil is probably derived from the red, having been 
deposited from water having little or no current, as is shown by 
yee question of the eolian origin of these formations. Mr. 
ilk, sees ae eens 
