302 THE DESERT SANDSTONE. 



and sandstone strata are very permeable to water. The heavy 

 rainfall of the wet season easily drains through the strata, and 

 bubbles out at the base, where it has weathered and broken it 

 away into abrupt, precipitous, and fortress-like hills." 



Beyond the Mary to the eastward there is table-land of a very 

 broken character, forming scenery which has few parallels I 

 think on the face of the earth. To use the words of my journal 

 at the time of my visit — 



" There was no high hill near us, but from the summit of the 

 steep slope above the camp a fine view was to be obtained. A 

 fine view and a strange one ; indeed I doubt if there be another 

 like it in the world. All around there is such a sight of cliffs 

 and gorges, isolated hills and flat-topped hills, hills like lighthouses, 

 hills like fortresses and bastions, and city gates, and ruined 

 palaces — in short, like anything and everything except the 

 common-place and monotonous. And then there were such 

 combinations of colour — white cliffs, red cliffs, blue cliffs, striped 

 cliffs ; in fact, I am afraid to go on for fear of overtaxing the 

 confidence of my readers. I could have gazed and woncfcer-ed at 

 the scene for a long time, and still found plenty to wonder at and 

 ponder over, for it is a prospect about which one could imagine 

 anything. It seemed to me so lifelike and so deathlike, so real 

 and so imaginary, that I knew not what to compare it to. One 

 could hardly believe that such startling shapes, so like the work 

 of man, could be entirely a freak of nature, and then the utter 

 absence of anything like human life about it suggested all sorts 

 of associations. It looked very barren, too, but this it certainly 

 was not, as we found on a nearer inspection. One thing this 

 view from afar impressed on us was the difficulty we should find 

 in crossing such a country. The gorges seemed as difficult to 

 descend into as Sindbad's Valley of Diamonds, and once in them 

 the problem was to get out again. It seemed like expecting 

 horses to be able to climb up a wall. However, it was not so 

 bad as it looked." 



I now proceed to deal with the formations of Desert Sandstone. 

 They may be arranged as follows : — 



1. Magnesian sandstones, magnesite or carbonate of magnesia 

 and ferruginous magnesites from 40 to 50 feet. This stratum is 

 not always present. 



2. True siliceous sandstones, quartzites, and loose sand-beds 

 scarcely indurated into a rock mass. 



3. Fluviatile drifts of a very broken character 500 to 600 feet 

 thick at greatest thickness, mostly connected with the present 

 fluviatile drainage of the country, but forming valleys of much 

 greater width. 



