ON THE PATA.NI. 183 



Caves there are also on a level with the ground, through many 

 of which one may travel for considerable distances. 



As one approaches the galena mines, the road winds in and out 

 among cliffs with clear rushing streams meandering at their base ; 

 and. every here and there a glimpse is obtained of some narrow 

 valley with its precipitous walls and hanging verdure. 



One very striking peculiarity in the formation of the country 

 here is the alternate succession of ridges or waves of limestone 

 and granite ; these limestone cliffs will be found cut down clear to 

 the granite, the junction plainly visible ; at the very base of the cliff 

 a stream will be found running over a granite bed, and, gradually 

 rising from this stream on the opposite bank, the slope of a granite 

 range ; on the other side of this range, again, will be found another 

 series of limestone cliffs, and so on for many miles. 



The cliffs almost invariably face the south, and the strike, or 

 longitudinal line runs about east and west, or a little to the north 

 of west and a little to the south of east, which would shew a south 

 and by westerly direction of the general flow of country. The back 

 or north sides of these cliffs present almost always a gradual rise ; 

 this rise consists generally of chaotic heaps of vast blocks of broken 

 and disjointed rock. I use the term '"vast" advisedly, for these 

 blocks or mountain masses of limestone convey most distinctly to 

 the mind the idea of a mountain-side having been simply churned 

 into fragments by some violent plutonic action. It is an exceeding- 

 ly difficult and tiresome feat climbing over these, as everywhere 

 ugly crevasses present themselves, into which a false step may 

 plunge the unwary ; these rocks have edges as sharp as knives, and 

 a false step or a careless movement may cost the climber's shins a 

 considerable strip of epidermis. At the base or north again of 

 this rise will be found granite ranges, steep to the south, but 

 sloping to the north. Now, if we consider these granite ranges, 

 for the sake of illustration, to be the waves of some vast plutonic 

 sea which, rolling its course along, has lifted and broken up 

 the limestone strata and pushed its way southwards (the crests 

 of its waves standing high above the country which Originally 

 covered them, and, as we see in the waves of the ocean, the back- 

 water sloping gradually in the direction from whence it came), we 



