CHAPTER IX. 
GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS ON NEW SOUTH WALES. 
A sanpsToneE bluff, from one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet 
in height, forms the North and South Heads of Port Jackson.* The 
rock lies in nearly horizontal beds, brought out in bold relief by the 
partial removal of occasional softer beds, or by natural excavations 
along the junction of the several layers. Passing the narrow entrance 
between the capes, the same light gray or grayish-yellow sandstone is 
seen bordering the bay throughout its extent, stretching far away 
around its deep sinuous coves, and advancing into prominent headlands 
that often confine the view to a small portion of this large expanse of 
waters. The sandstone usually presents a low bluff front to the bay : 
the upper layers retreat either by terraces or a gradual slope, into 
rounded elevations covered with a sparse growth of shrubbery or 
forest trees. These slopes continue in many places to the water’s 
edge, especially at the head of the coves, where they terminate below 
in a broad sand-beach, or a smal] marsh, more or less changed to 
meadow-land by washings from the adjoining declivities. 
On reaching the higher grounds about Port Jackson, which no- 
where exceed four hundred feet above the sea, the eye ranges over 
extended plains, gently undulating, or meets occasionally with narrow 
gorges appearing like deep channel excavations through the general 
surface of the country and the subjacent sandstone. With the excep- 
tion of some few ornamental trees cultivated about the handsome man- 
sions adorning the vicinity of Sydney, there is little to relieve the dull 
sameness of the sterile fields around. A scanty growth of grass, with 
thin patches of gum trees,t and shrubbery seems to contend with the 
* A view of these Heads is given beyond. 
+ Species of the genus Eucalyptus, many of which occur over New South Wales, and 
give a peculiar character to the forests. 
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