226 
GEOLOGICAL REMARKS. 
first-mentioned river ; but considering the trifling elevation 
of the Darling above the sea, and that the junction was 
still less elevated above it, I cannot bring myself to believe 
that the former alters its course. It is not, however, on 
this simple geographical principle that 1 have built my 
conclusions ; other corroborative circumstances have tended 
also to confirm in my mind the opinion I have already 
given, not only of the comparatively recent appearance above 
the ocean of the level country over which I had passed, but 
that the true dip of the interior is from north to south. 
In support of the first of these conclusions, it would ap- 
pear that a current of water must have swept the vast 
accumulation of shells, forming the great fossil bank through 
which the Murray passes from the northern extremity of 
the continent, to deposit them where they are ; and it would 
further appear from the gradual rise of this bed, on an 
inclined plain from N.N.E. to S.S.W., that it must in the 
first instance, have swept along the base of the ranges, but 
ultimately turned into the above direction by the con- 
vexity of the mountains at the S. E. angle of the coast. From 
the circumstance, moreover, of the summit of the fossil for- 
mation being in places covered with oyster shells, the fact 
of the whole mass having been under water is indisputable, 
and leads us naturally to the conclusion that the depressed 
interior beyond it must have been under water at the same 
time. 
It was proved by barometrical admeasurement, that the 
cataract of the Macquarie was 680 feet above the level of 
the sea, and, in like manner, it was found that the depot of 
