Feb., 1942 The Queensland Naturalist 5 
The valley of Chinghee Creek is much more open 
than is that of Running Creek; Christmas Creek has, on 
the average, a wider valley than has Running Creek, but 
its watersheds are as steep. 
Basalt is almost the only rock type to be seen except 
for a few deposits of river gravels. The soils also show 
little variation, all belonging to what are popularly called 
“black soils, 7 ’ varying from brown forest soils on the high 
ground to black earths in the valleys. The red loams so 
characteristic of basalt hills and plateaux in Eastern 
Queensland are conspicuous by their absence. In the 
valley of Chinghee Creek the soil is lighter in texture and 
colour, is frequently shallow, and isolated boulders, some- 
times of large size, are scattered here and there. Along 
and in the creeks is an abundance of basalt boulders, but 
gravel is rare. 
There are no meteorological data, but it seems fairly 
certain that the valley of Chinghee Creek is distinctly 
drier than that of Running Creek. 
VEGETATION. 
The vegetation may be considered under five heads : 
Primary Vegetation. — 
1. Closed Forest. 
2. Open Forest. 
3. Vegetation of stream banks and beds. 
4. Swamps. 
Secondary Vegetation. — 
5. Artificial and Induced Vegetation. 
1. Closed Forest (Figs. 5, 6 and 8) is widely 
spread, but the factors controlling its distribution are 
obscure and owing to circumstances it was not studied in 
detail. The communities occur chiefly on the ranges, 
coming down to the north bank of the creek near the 
junction of the North and South Branches, and on to 
both banks above the junction. But on the crests of the 
ranges and of some of their spurs it is frequently replaced 
by open forest, the closed forest communities being then 
confined to the gullies. 
The Closed Forest is mostly well developed, and much 
of it could truly be called Rain Forest. The trees are tall 
and buttresses are well developed in a few species such as 
Tarrietia actinophylla, Geissios lachnocarpa and Villaresia 
