Coal Basin of New South Wales. 9 
nessed are just such as might result from powerful ocean 
‘currents passing over masses of rather friable sandstone. 
Similarly we are not startled to see, worn as they are, the 
valleys of the Barrabools, nor is it beyond the bounds of 
probability to conceive the vast sandstone dome removed 
from the centre of Victoria by long-continued oceanic action. 
The destruction, too, of the cliffs nearSydneyis only what might 
be reasonably expected from the enormous billows which 
almost constantly break upon the shore in that locality. The 
geologist, however, is not a little surprised to find cliffs 
similar to those of Port Jackson eighty miles inland. 
Speaking of one of these in the vicinity of the Weather- 
board, Mr. Darwin says: “The country here is elevated 
2,800 feet above the sea. About a mile and a half from this 
place there is a view exceedingly well worth visiting. Fol- 
lowing down a little valley, and its tiny rill of water, an 
immense gulf unexpectedly opens through the trees which 
border the pathway, at a depth of perhaps 1,500 feet. 
Walking on a few yards, one stands on the brink of a vast 
precipice, and below one sees a grand bay or gulf—for I 
know not what other name to give it —thickly covered with 
forest. The point of view is situated as if at the head of a 
bay, the line of cliff diverging on each side, and showing 
headland after headland, as on a bold sea-coast.” And, 
again: “ Great arm-like bays, expanding at their upper 
ends, often branch from the main valleys and penetrate the . 
sandstone platform ; on the other hand, the platform often 
sends promontories into the valleys, and even leaves in them 
great, almost, insulated, masses.” 
In attempting an explanation of the phenomenon, Mr. 
Darwin further says: “The first impression, on seeing the 
correspondence of the horizontal strata on each side of these 
valleys and great amphitheatrical depressions, isthatthey have 
been hollowed out, like other valleys, by the action of 
water ; but when one reflects on the enormous amount of 
stone, which on this view must have been removed through 
mere gorges in chasms, (for the valleys many miles in 
breadth at. their heads often contract to not more than 2,000 
yards at their mouths,) one is led to ask whether the spaces 
may not have subsided. But considering. the form of the 
irregularly branching valleys, and of the narrow promontories 
projecting into them from the platforms, we are compelled 
to abandon this notion. To attribute these valleys to the 
present alluvial action would be preposterous ; nor does the 
