456 NEW SOUTH WALES. 
drying winds. On the opposite or eastern coasts, the reverse takes 
place; the prevailing winds come from a warmer region, and being 
already surcharged with moisture, they are yielding it in the shape of 
rain, as they travel away from the tropics to colder regions. ‘The 
winds of the west coast, unless prevented by a high mountain barrier, 
will affect largely the whole continent, a fact to which Africa bears 
sad testimony. Australia in the same manner suffers from the drying 
winds, through its whole width from west to east. But the charac- 
teristic weather of eastern shores, as well as the insular character of 
the land, throws in a modifying element, and the consequence is that 
there are alternations of wet and dry through ordinary seasons, and 
also every few years alternations of floods and droughts. 
The character of the streams should be partly attributed to the 
soft, porous nature of the sandstone, and the near horizontality of the 
stratification. Owing to the latter cause, there are no inclined planes 
for gathering together the waters that may be absorbed from the sur- 
face, and guiding them into channels. ‘These waters are taken up 
and dissipated without benefit to the country; being spread every 
way, instead of collecting together, they evaporate from all points of 
exposure, or gradually pass into the rocks to a depth below the river 
valleys. ‘These remarks apply generally to the whole of the sand- 
stone portion of the colony. 
The mineral resources of New South Wales, thus far laid open, 
consist of mines of lead in the Yass region, and valuable beds of coal 
on the Hunter and in Illawarra. South Australia contains copper 
and lead mines of great productiveness, and gold mines are said to 
have been discovered. 
IL GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 
In the foregoing observations on the general features of New South 
Wales, we have comprised under the term sandstone, strata of diffe- 
rent ages, as their influence on the topography of the country is 
strikingly similar. ‘These rocks are naturally divided as follows : 
1. Sandstone above the coal, including subordinate layers of argil- 
laceous shale. We shall name this the Sydney Sandstone. 
2. The coal formation, with its shales and sandstones. 
3. Argillaceous sandstones below the coal. 
