81 
desckiption of Oxley’s table land. 
ward, and the westward, was such as to deter us from risk- 
ing anything, by taking such a direction as was most 
agreeable to our views. Nothing remained to us but to 
follow the creek, or to retreat ; and as we could only be 
induced to adopt the last measure when every other expe- 
dient should have failed, we determined on pursuing our ori- 
ginal plan, of tracing New Year’s Creek as far as practicable. 
Oxley’s Table Land is situated in lat. 29" 57' 30", and in E. 
long. 145° 43' 30", the mean variation being 6. 32 easterly. 
It consists of two hills that appear to have been rent 
asunder by some convulsion of nature, since the passage 
between them is narrow and their inner faces are equally 
perpendicular. The hill which I have named after the late 
Surveyor-general, is steep on all sides ; but the other gra- 
dually declines from the south, and at length loses itself in 
a large plain that extends to the north. It is from four to five 
miles in length, and is picturesque in appearance, and 
lightly wooded. A few cypresses were growing on Oxley’s 
Table Land ; but it had, otherwise, very little timber upon its 
summit. Both hills are of sandstone formation, and there 
are some hollows upon the last that deserve particular no- 
tice. They have the appearance of having been formed by 
eddies of water, being deeper in the centre than at any other 
part, and contain fragments and slabs of sandstone of various 
size and breadth, without a particle of soil or of sand 
between them. It is to be observed that the edges of these 
slabs, which were perfect parallelograms, were unbroken, 
and that they were as clean as if they had only just been 
VOL, I. 
G 
