587 
Usual form being irregularly shaped granules and granular aggregates, devoid of 
cleavage. One of the minute colourless augites, presenting the usual eight-sided 
outline, shows what are undonbtedly lines of accretion. 
“ The crystals of olivine present all the characters common to olivines of basaltic 
rocks. 
“ Irregularly shaped grains of magnetite are of common occurrence. 
“ A little clear, glassy matrix can be detected.” 
On the eastern side of the range, the basalts, in horizontal beds, form a tableland 
at an elevation of between 2,000 and 3,000 feet, extending from the brow of the Coast 
Eange to the base of the Herberton mountains. The tableland is covered with a inost 
magnificent tropical jungle, through which hardly a ray of sunshine can penetrate. Ihe 
basaltic soil and a heavy rainfall have combined to produce in this region an almost 
incalculable wealth of cedar and other valuable timber. 
Accompanied by Mr. Maitland, I visited, in 1889, the “crater-lake,” Lake 
Eacham. The lake occupies the very summit of the divide between the heads of 
Petersen’s Creek (Barron Waters) and the heads of creeks flowing into the Mulgrave. 
It is located, but not named, on the Two-mile Map issued by the Department of Lands ; 
but is minutely charted in the “ Plan of the Village of Eacham, Parish of East Barron,” 
issued by the same Department in 1889. I observe that Mr. A. Meston * spells the 
name Yeetcham, as more in accordance with the native pronunciation. Mr. Meston 
briefly describes another lake, named “ Boonoobagolomee,” seven or eight miles to the 
West, and adds “ The blacks speak of a third lake much smaller than the others, but 
so far [October, 1889] it has not been seen by white men.” 
My companion and I readied Lake Eadiam by a track from Halfpapp s Hotel, in 
“ Petersen’s Pocket,” on the Cairns and Herberton pack-road. At the junction of the 
roads from the Mulgrave and Russell Gold PIclds to Cairns, we found a tree marked 
“ Lake 400 yds., S. W., J. McL., E. Hood.” From this point we made a considerable 
ascent to the bigbost point of the ridge surrounding the lake, where we found a tree 
marked 84 over V., wbicli we understood to be the south-east corner of an Agricultuial 
Area,” and another marked with the name of the discoverer and the date of discovery, 
“ J. McLellan, Juno, ’79.” This point, from which the first glimpse of the lake was 
obtained, was 2,6S0 feet above sea-level by Aneroid measurement. The descent to the 
lake was very steep, and, like all the rest of the day’s journey, clothed with dense jungle. 
The Aneroid gave the surface of the water as 2,390 feet. 
The lake is surrounded by a ridge composed of loose weathered volcanic ash 
containing stones up to six indies in diameter, mostly of bombs of a doleritic rock full 
of olivine. In ascending the lip of the lake we came on rocks in situ which we had 
missed in the descent. Those were of ruddy stratified “ ash ” of angular fragments, 
dipping at 5° away from the lake. The lake has neither aflluent nor effluent ; and 
as it stands higher than the surrounding country, and is enclosed by a wall of ashy 
materials heaped up above the level of the basaltic tableland, I think it is very pro a e 
that it really occupies a crater. It is dearly impossible that, in the latitude where it 
occurs, the lake could have been hollowed out by an ice-sheet, which won ,moreovet, 
liave levelled the surrounding rim of soft ash. The lip of the crater is not o uni orin 
height ; and although it is likely enough that it has suffered greater denudation in some 
places than in others, it may be conjectured that the greater height of the rim on t e 
western side may be due to some extent to the tendency of Die prevailing south-east 
winds to drive the ejected materials to the l eeward. The lake is said to be of vast depth, 
* Report on the Government Scientieo Expedition to the Bellenden-Ker Range. Brisbane : by 
A.uthority : 1889. 
