New South Wales . 7 
forming precipitous cliffs, with low valleys and beaches separating 
those alternations. 
Independently of this arrangement the whole of the Central 
area inside the Eastern Cordillera has a trend to the south and 
west, so that the waters collected between 22° and 37° s., on the 
east of South Australia, find their way to the sea at the eastern 
corner of that province. 
We might naturally assume that one order of deposits is to be 
expected throughout the Cordillera ; but there is a singular 
exception. Whilst marine deposits of Tertiary age are found 
along the west coast of Australia, and along the southern coast 
from Cape Leuwin to Cape Ilowe, there are no known marine 
Tertiaries in any part of the Coast of New South Wales and 
Queensland up to the Cape York Peninsula \ and the reason of 
this may be, that, as indicated by phenomena before pointed out 
by me, but which on this occasion cannot be further dwelt upon, 
the eastern extension of Australia has been probably cut off by 
a general sinking, in accordance with the Barrier Beef theory of 
Mr. Darwin. This has some support from the fact that there is 
a repetition of Australian formations in the Louisiade Archipelago, 
New Caledonia, and New Zealand, in the latter of ■which occur 
abundant Tertiary deposits. The intervening ocean may, there¬ 
fore, be supposed to cover either a great synclinal depression or 
a denuded series of folds ; but, as shown in 1874 by the soundings 
from ILM.S. Challenger, this depression is of enormous depth, 
in one sounding 2,025 fathoms having been reached. 
Belatively speaking then, the Cordillera of the eastern coast 
has not been subject to the changes which introduced the relics 
of a Tertiary ocean, or they have been removed by subsequent 
sinking and denudation. At any rate, no evidence is known to 
me of marine Tertiaries on the lands north of Cape Ilowe. 
Another fact -worthy of notice, as showing the probable ancient 
geological vicissitudes of Australia is, that the great Carboniferous 
series which is so prominent in New South Wales and in parts of 
Queensland, but which is less distributed in Victoria, and there 
only partially and irregularly as to the portions still remaining, 
has been broken up and carried away, so as to have left the 
various members dislocated, ruined, and separated in such a way 
as to allow no clear view to be taken of the whole till all the 
various portions have been separately examined; and to the 
want of this personal examination on the part of certain Palaeon¬ 
tologists and others, who have never yet studied the Carboniferous 
formation of New South Wales, is to be attributed the perseverance 
with which they have so long disputed facts attested by geologists 
in New South Wales, who are familiar with that Colony and with 
Victoria also, but who are ignored by the closet-geologists of the 
latter. 
