ARTESIAN WATER IN NEW SOUTH WALES. 293 



waters received by the craters from rainfall. If this be a fact, it 

 would tend to confirm the supposition that there are artesian 

 water beds under the Tertiaries in this locality, the pipes of the 

 volcanoes perhaps forming natural wells for the upward passage 

 of the artesian water. 



The mound springs of East-Central Australia often occur along 

 the junction line of "bed-rock" with the Cretaceous strata, the 

 water probably finding an easier outlet to the surface along this 

 line owing to the sediments composing the Cretaceous Beds becom- 

 ing coarser as they approach the bedrock, which formed the 

 margin of the Cretaceous Ocean. The mud springs of South 

 Australia, as described by Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, f.g.s., frequently 

 form accumulations of travertine attaining heights of from forty 

 to fifty feet above the level of the plain, and when occurring in 

 groups, presenting the appearance as seen from a distance, of a 

 low range of hills. 



Perhaps the most remarkable groups of mud springs in Australia 

 are those on the Lower Flinders, of which an excellent description 

 has been given by Mr. E. Palmer, m.l.a.* As described by him, 

 these springs are analogous to those between the Warrego and 

 Bourke in New South Wales, and occur in clusters. Each cluster 

 consists of a main or central spring surrounded by numberless 

 ones of less importance, within a radius of a mile or so. The zone 

 within which the clusters are situated trends north-north-west 

 and south- south-east, and has a length of eighty miles. The 

 springs erupt thin mud and hot water intermittently, and so 

 gradually build up around their orifices mounds of mud of a rudely 

 crateriform shape. The mounds are coated with a whitish crust 

 of soda. At Mount Browne, on the Lower Flinders several feet 

 ^ibove the general level of the plain is a mud-spring mound covered 

 with gigantic tea-tree (Melaleuca leucodendron), amongst the 

 matted roots of which the hot water steams in clear shining 

 crystal pools. At the top of the mound is a large basin of hot 



* Proc. E. Soc. Queensland, 1884, Vol. i. part i. pp. 19-23. 



