22 
the winter floods have expelled the salt water. There is plenty of evidence to 
prove that this coast is rising rapidly, in addition to the fact, that many old 
colonists remember when land at Fremantle, now quite above the water level, used 
daily to be covered by the tide. 
Between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin there is a line of ranges of 
crystalline rocks, flanked towards the sea by limestone cliffs, and running parallel 
to the Barling Range, at a distance of 30 miles to the Westward of them, the 
country between them consisting of sands, loams, clays, and gravels beneath which 
coals of fair quality have been found. 
The Southern portion of the Barling Range is of a highly crystalline character, 
the rocks being mostly granite and gneiss with dykes of diorite "and feldspar, and 
quartz veins, all of which, as in the Northern section, are capped with deposits of 
clay, clay ironstone, and sandstone. 
Columnar Basalt makes its appearance at Bunbury and further to the South 
at Cape Beaufort, as well as in several places between these points. 
On the Eastern side of the Barling Range, on the Collie River, some large coal 
seams have been discovered; these outcrop in the bed of the river in some poor 
sandy and swampy country, of which there is a considerable extent, but what area 
of country is covered by the coal-bearing formation it is impossible to sav until the 
boring operations are more advanced. 
The Plantagenet Bistrict. 
This district extends along the South coast from Point B’Entreeasteaux to 
Eucla. 
The coast to the Westward of Albany consists of bold granite headlands in¬ 
dented by a number of inlets, into which the rivers draining the country to the 
Northward flow, often forming large alluvial deposits. Patches of limestone occur 
m places, while, higher up, the sections exposed by the streams show the crystal¬ 
line rocks overlaid by clays and clay ironstone deposits. 
About 50 miles to the Northward of Albany, stands the Stirling Ranne It 
is about 50 miles long, runs East and West, and attains an elevation of about 
3,500 feet above the sea level. The rocks of this range are not of so highly altered 
a character as is generally the case in this colony; they consist of quartzite sand 
stone, ferruginous slaty sandstones, and slate, with quartz reefs (probably of 
Silurian age), striking East and West with a variable dip. The country between 
this range and Albany is mostly granite, large masses of which rise through the 
sand, with which a good deal of it is covered. ' h c 
Eastward the coast, presents a series of bold granite and n^etamorpkic rock 
headlands as far as Cape And the granite being overlaid by fossiliferous Mesozoic 
rock which form the high .sandy tableland of the interior, probably extending in 
patches as far North as Giles Great Victoria Besert. - 
From Cape Arid to the boundary of the Colony, a great mass of tertiary 
limestone rises, presenting an almost vertical face, from 300 to 400 feet in hemht 
to the sea called the Great Australian Bight. This was probably formed liv s’ 
great upheaval from the Southward in recent times, the strain causing one irreat 
fault, the lme of winch now forms the line of cliffs. ° lt 
On the top of this is a great table-land which extends some 200 miles into the 
interior ; it. has no rivers but the rainfall (flowing underground) 'soaks into he 
porous limestone, and is discharged at the base of the cliffs, which are very interest 
mg from a geological point of view, being very largely composed of fossils. 
The Eastern Bistrict. 
On penetrating East into the ranges the character of the rocks change, tin 
hard granitic rocks being replaced by crystalline schists, often of a comparatively 
