1 
minates. The appearance at a distance is very like houses. There 
is no rock showing out, and the vegetation seems scanty and 
poor, with but few trees. 
North of Cape Bedford is the inconspicuous opening of 
the Mclvor River. This runs through open alluvial plains of 
the richest agricultural character. From the description I have 
heard of the country around the Mclvor, I should imagine that 
the soil is derived from the decomposition of volcanic rocks, but 
I have not seen more of the locality than the mouth of the river, 
and that only at a distance. The sandy soil and sand hills con- 
tinue, with some interruption, as far as Cape Flattery, where 
granite reappears. The Lizard Islands which lie off the same 
cape are entirely granitic. Beyond this, I know nothing of the 
jjeninsula from actual observation, but I am informed that the 
coast is very uninteresting. The Main Range continues to 
diminish in height as far as Cape York, where, as already stated, 
it is scarcely 300 feet high. I have been dealing thus far with 
the coast region only, and I now proceed to relate what little I 
know of the interior. Of the journey from Island Point to the 
Hodgkinson, I have already spoken. The gold diggings are 
situated on a branch of the Mitchell River, and the auriferous 
district extends at intervals from the Slate Range close to the 
Mitchell on the east to the Walsh River, which is one of the 
* principal tributaries of the Mitchell. It may perhaps be 
^ necessary to state that the river last named is one of the main 
channels of drainage from the western side of the Dividing 
Range into the Gulf of Carpentaria. Its sources are not more 
than ten miles from the Pacific, which will show how very near 
* to the sea the main divide is in the Cape York Peninsula. The 
river has a very large number of tributaries, the principal of 
which are Rifle Creek, the East and West Hodgkinson, the 
Walsh, and the Palmer. It has a very long course to the Gulf, 
probably more than 500 miles, and its sources may be said to be 
the main granitic axis of the divide and the slaty auriferous hills 
which are found by the side of the granitic axis, and often 
exceeding it in height. From the fact that some of the longest 
and best tributaries come from the east, we may conclude that 
the main sources of the river are amongst the heights behind 
Trinity Bay, from Mount Harris to the Endeavour River. The 
Lvnd is another of its tributaries, and by far the most important 
of all. This has its sources in the Bellenden Ker Ranges, whose 
highest summits are, as I have already stated, to the north of 
Cardwell. The great mass of mountains are granitic, but to the 
westward the slopes are occupied by a mass of ranges which are 
Silurian probably, or at least upturned slates of paleozoic rock 
with quartz veins and trap dykes. The dykes are numerous and 
trappean. They have been so altered by metamorphism that it 
would be difficult to give them a name from their external character 
alone. They are now porphyritic, and enclose large crystals of 
what seems like hornblende, but of such large size that the 
stone might easily be mistaken for a conglomerate. On the 
