THE DESERT SANDSTONE. 297 



appears also to have experienced considerable difficulty in 

 descending from the plateau on to the alluvial margin of the north 

 coast, though in his case there were many rocky gorges at hand. 

 He says in his journal of 10th July, lat. 13° 24': — "At half-past 

 one crossed the table-land, breadth thirteen miles. The view was 

 beautiful. Standing on the edge of a precipice, underneath, lower 

 down, a deep creek thickly wooded. * * * * We had to 

 search for a place to descend, and had great difficulty in doing so, 

 but at last accomplished it without accident. The course of the 

 table-land is about N.N.W. and S.S.E., and the cliffs appear to be 

 from 250 to 300 feet high. We were now without doubt upon the 

 Adelaide River." Other instances of the character of the edge 

 of the table-land need not be given, for it would appear to be 

 very much alike in the various places where its limits have been 

 been crossed by Gregory, Burke, Landsborough, Walker, and 

 McKinlay. The southern edges of the plateau have sometimes 

 the same precipitous faces as the northern. 



Having made an attentive examination of much of the coast 

 line between Carpentaria and the Victoria River, I am able to 

 speak positively as to the nature of the formations which are met 

 with. The physical structure of this part of the Australian 

 Continent is best described in the words of my report to the 

 South Australian Government in September, 1886, as follows : — 



"Before proceeding to give details of the geology of the 

 Territory, it will be necessary to correct an erroneous idea which 

 has prevailed as to the physical structure of this part of the 

 continent. That idea has been that the plains, after rising by an 

 easy slope from the sea southward, reach points at varying distances 

 where they are covered by a rampart of sandstone, about 

 600 feet in height. This rampart is supposed to be the edge of 

 the great plateau of the interior or continental Australia. In 

 other places the table-land is supposed to be 800 feet in height 

 above the plains, and 1,800 feet above the sea. Latterly this 

 plateau has been called by the name of the Desert Sandstone, 

 and is supposed to cover most of the older formations, and to 

 cut out as it were all the older and mineral deposits. Whether 

 it does so or not in the far interior I cannot say, though I am 

 inclined to think not. Where I have been there is no such thing 

 as a continuous table-land. Patches of broken table-land occur 

 frequently at the sources of rivers and creeks, but they are only 

 patches, often no more than ridges ; if they are more than four or 

 five miles in width they descend as an inclined plane to the valley 

 of the next large watercourse, w r here the older formations generally 

 crop out ; their height varies between 120 and 300 feet ; once 

 only have I seen a plateau of 370 feet in height. At its northern, 

 which is always the broken edge, it was less than half that 



