Page:A sketch of the physical structure of Australia.djvu/17



great physical features of Australia, as far as they are at present known, may be very briefly described.

1. A long, but not lofty, mountain chain runs along the whole eastern coast, crossing Bass's Straits into Tasmania, and running under Torres Straits to the shores of New Guinea.

2. On the landward, or western side of this chain are great plains, declining gradually to the west, but at first often broken by detached hills or groups of mountains. These plains are traversed by the rivers Murray and Darling and their tributaries, on the south, disemboguing into Lake Alexandrina,—by Victoria River (and perhaps some others) in the centre, which drain into Sturt's central desert, and in seasons of flood probably disembogue by Lake Torrens, and by the small rivers which, on the north, run into the south-eastern portion of the Gulf of Carpentaria.

3. West of the tracts thus described appear immense desert plains, which seem to extend to the sea coast round the Gulf of Carpentaria on the