86 
oils analyses of the waters of the States, which have been made 
for various purposes. From examination of a large number of 
these analyses the present writer is strongly of opinion that they 
point to deri\ation of their saline contents from a marine source 
rather than directly from integral constituents of the bedrock. It 
is obvious that strata laid down as sediments under sea water 
must contain a proportion of sea-salts in them when they are again 
elevated to become dry land, and even the old crystalline rocks, 
when their upper surfaces have been under the sea may well be 
assumed to have a large amount of salt water forced into them 
through all possible joints and fissures in them, which would 
mostly he retained when they were again elevated above sea level. 
Such interstitial salt would then have to be regarded as of marine 
origin, and quite foreign to the solid constituents of the rocks in 
which it is entangled, and would be capable of being washed out of 
them. It \vould thus be different in origin from salts set free by 
the weathering and chemical changes affecting the original mater- 
ials of the rock itself. The commonly accepted theory that West- 
ern Australia presents a very old land-surface which has never 
been submerged for ages, liowever. demands that the saline accu- 
mulations must be regarded as principally derived from the inte- 
gral minerals comi)osing the bedrock. Hut so far as analyses have 
gone, there is very little chlorine in the crystalline rocks, and it 
is very difficult to believe that the enormous quantities of salt pre- 
sent in the salt pans and the surface soil and shallow underground 
waters of this State can have been formed merely by prolonged 
concentration of the minute amounts of chlorides as yet demon- 
strated to be existent as a primal constituent of the crystalline 
rocks. It is often stated that the areas occupied by the greenstones 
vield ground water much more highly saline than that of the 
granite districts, and also that the soda-granite country is saber 
than that composed of orthoclase or microcline granite. Thv 
writer is very dubious as to these statements being acceptable as 
correct generalisations, as there are several granite regions towards 
the south coast where the ground waters are extremely salt, and 
other greenstone districts, esjjecially in the AInrehison, East Alur- 
chison. and Alt. ATargaret fields, where fresh water is found just as 
commonly as in the granite. In the absence of analytical proof 
that the greenstones average considerably higher than the granites 
in percentage of chlorine in their crystalline constituents, the 
writer is inclined to ascribe any local differences in salinity which 
may he noticed rather to the much more jointed and often schis- 
tose structure of the greenstones as compared with the granites, 
and their consequent greater liability to inclose interstitial salt 
water whose salt is not necessarily derived from the enclosing rock. 
A somewhat curious instance is seen at the Govrnmeiit dam at 
Cordingu]) Creek at Ravensthorpe, where some 000,000 gallons 
of fresh water are im])ounded from rains falling on a granite 
