Grology.] 
NATURAL HISTORY. 
577 
the Gulf of Carpentaria ; with which the trap-formation ap- 
pears to be associated. 
York Sound, one of the principal inlets on this part of the 
coast, is bounded by precipitous rocks, from one to two hun- 
dred feet in height ; and some conical rocky peaks, which 
not improbably consist of quartz-rock, were noticed on the 
eastern side of the entrance. An unpublished sketch, by 
Captain King, shews that the banks of Hunter’s River, one 
of the branches of York Sound, at seven or eight miles from 
its opening, are composed of sand-stone, in beds of great 
regularity ; and this place is also remarkable for a copious 
spring of freshwater, one of the rarest phenomena of these 
thirsty and inhospitable shores *. 
The most considerable inlet, however, which has yet been 
discovered in this quarter of Australia, is Prince-Regent’s 
River, about thirty miles to the south-west of York Sound, — 
the course of which is almost rectilinear for about fifty miles 
in a south-eastern direction ; a fact which will probably be 
found to be connected with the geological structure of the 
country. The general character of the banks, which are lofty 
and abrupt, is precisely the same with that of the rivers 
falling into York Sound; and the level of the country does 
not appear to be higher in the interior than near the coast. 
The banks are from two to four hundred feet in height, and 
consist of close-grained siliceous sand-stone, of a reddish 
huet; and the view, (Plate, vol. ii. p. 46.) shews that the 
beds are nearly horizontal, and very regularly disposed ; the 
cascade there represented being about one hundred and 
sixty feet in height, and the beds from six to twelve feet 
in thickness. Two conspicuous hills, which Captain King 
2 P 
* Narrative, i. p. 405 . 
t Narrative i. pp. 434 - 437 , and 11. p. 45 . 
Vol. II. 
