xlii 
CHARACTER OF THE SOIL 
difficult to explain myself as I should wish to do, 
in the critical discussion on which I have thus 
entered, yet as it is material to the elucidation 
of an important subject in the body of the work, 
I feel it incumbent on me to proceed to the 
best of my ability. 
I have said that the soil of a country depends 
much upon its geological formation. This ap- 
pears to be particularly the case in those parts 
of the colony with which I am acquainted, or 
those lying between the parallels of .30® and 35® 
south. Sandstone, porphyry, and granite, suc- 
ceed each other from the coast to a very con- 
siderable distance into the interior, on a N. W. 
line. The light ferruginous dust that is dis- 
tributed over the county of Cumberland, and 
which annoys the traveller by its extreme minute- 
ness, to the eastward of the Blue Mountains, 
is as different from the coarse gravelly soil on 
the secondary ranges to the westward of them, 
as the barren scrubs and thickly-wooded tracts 
of the former district are to the grassy and 
open forests of the latter. 
As soon as I began to descend to the west- 
ward, it became necessary to pay strict and 
