72 
apprecia])le river erosion almost entirely absent until the coastal 
strip is reached. 1'he most prominent physioj^raphical characteris- 
tic of this i)art of the country is extreme peneplanation. there beinj^ 
no reallv higli hills, such as there are being of the worn-down hum- 
mocky type, and the greatest part of the area is occupied by exten- 
sive plains and salt lakes. As previously mentioned the i)lains 
generally merge into one another — -though often we have the main 
parts of each at considerably different levels — and dip on the whole 
very gently southward. One of the best examples of this sort of 
country may be seen between Meekatharra and Cue. There are 
two principal lakes in this region, Lake Annean and Lake Austin, 
with several smaller ones like the lake near (Juinn’s. The lakes 
occupv the lowest parts of very flat basins, and have very ill- 
dcfmcd margins in most i>laces, the bare mud flats along their 
edges becoming covered graduallv with a growth of vegetation. 
\\ hich is scanty at first, but soon gets more luxuriant as one passes 
outwards from the salt-pans. Pnil one may go on for miles out 
from the lakes without encountering any rise in the plain country 
l^erceptible to the eye, the grades lieing so flat as to be almost un- 
noticea'lile without precise levelling. From Lake .Vnnean one may 
go over ])]ains eastward, by going round the higher land at Quinn's 
and Ihirnakura. and reach Quinn's Lake, and from there go south- 
westerly. all over plain country, to T.ake Austin. Coming south 
from Lake .\nncan one may also follow plain country all the way to 
Lake Austin, although the railway goes over higher ground at 
Tuckanarra and Stake Well. Lake Annean however, is quite SO 
feet higher than Lake .\ustin.* The lakes are seen to be merely 
the lowest depressions in one large plain which has a slight dip 
southward. On following this plain outw ards, we find that it very 
commonly is fringed with lines of cliffs, often fiO to HH) feet high, 
usually cut from weathered granite much laterilise{l on the surface. 
These cliffs (escarpments) are known on the fields as “Tlreak- 
awavs," i)rol)al)ly from some idea that the ground has l)roken and 
fallen along them, d'hey show no sign, however, of being fault- 
scarps, being very irregular in outline as a rule, with often outlying 
“stacks" separated from the mainland and ha\ ing scarps all round 
them. The cliffs are full of small caves and rock-shelters worn 
out of the laterite and the soft kaolinised granite lying beneath it, 
and often there are fallen Ifiocks of the laterite at the foot of th. 
clilTs. Verv usually the slope of the plain curves up very per- 
ceptibly to the toe of the cliffs, hnl the general horizontality of the 
edge of the ])lains along the bottom of the cliffs is very marked. 
The sha])es and outlines presented along the contact of the plains 
with the cliffs are ([uitc similar to those seen along the clifl-lined 
shore of a sea or lake, and after close examination of many of them 
with rival theories of wind and water formation in mind, the con- 
vene Staliou 148^ Day Dawn Station 1398, F anninc Station 1475 
Austin Station 1364. Nallan 1389. feet (Railway heights', 
