296 THE DESERT SANDSTONE. 



"Mr. Etheridge placed the Maryborough beds (which lie in the 

 Burrum River Coalfield) below the Hughenden and Marathon 

 beds. There is, however, no stratigraphical evidence whatever in 

 support of this, and it is obvious from the number of new species, 

 that the co-relation of the Maryborough beds with any European 

 horizon rests on very insecure grounds. 



" Mr. Gregory* says that the Maryborough beds merge upwards 

 into the Desert Sandstone, ' which appears as a thin covering to 

 the older rocks along the sea-coast from the Burnett River to the 

 Logan River.' If we could be sure of the identity of the ' thin 

 covering ' with Desert Sandstone, the relations of the Maryborough 

 beds would be clearer ; but the point is a doubtful one. I am 

 inclined to regard the 'thin covering ' as a newer deposit than the 

 Desert Sandstone — possibly post-tertiary. But the solution of the 

 difficulty must await the production of further evidence. 



"I have in the meantime coloured the Maryborough beds, 

 provisionally, as Desert Sandstones, but the arrangement is 

 merely a temporary convenience. 



"Leaving the Maryborough beds out of the question, the only 

 direct evidence bearing on the age of the Desert Sandstone is 

 that it lies unconformably on the " Rolling Downs " formation. 

 It may be the equivalent of the Upper Cretaceous. 



" In the arid western interior, the tablelands of Desert 

 Sandstone serve one useful purpose. They are ' sponges ' which 

 absorb the rainfall, and let it out in springs at their junction 

 with the underlying more argillaceous rocks of the ' Rolling 

 Downs.' Some of these springs were still active, at the end of 

 1885, after three years of drought." 



From the time of Leichhardt, North Australia was generally 

 regarded as a plateau of Desert Sandstone, with a precipitous face 

 on its northern edge. Sometimes these cliffs on the edges of the 

 table-land abutted on the ocean, and sometimes a low flat land 

 very gradually rising from the sea led up to the plateau, varying 

 in width from 1 to 100 miles. Where the Sandstone abuts upon 

 the sea-coast, it gives rise to a precipitous series of gorges like the 

 Sydney Harbour, and its character at a distance is like the Blue 

 Mountains. Leichhardt in exploring the Alligator River to Port 

 Essington, had much difficulty in finding a practicable place 

 where he could descend from the plateau. By some mistake in 

 transcribing his notes, he has been quoted as saying that the 

 height of this plateau varied between 1,800 and 800 feet, but it 

 is stated that an attentive examination of the original MS. 

 journal shews that the height given is 300 feet only. Stuart 



# Geological Features of the South-Eastern Districts of Queensland. 

 Brisbane, 1879. By authority. 



