Page:A sketch of the physical structure of Australia.djvu/55

43 but few and scanty. We possess absolutely no information as to the structure of the district round the rivers Murray and Murrumbidgee, after their leaving the neighbourhood of the eastern chain till their junction, nor for some distance below it, except the general intimation that the country is low, devoid of any striking features, and characterized by barrenness rather than fertility. We meet with some better details of the district of the Lachlan and the Macquarrie, both in the old travels of Mr. Oxley, and the more modern ones of Sir T. Mitchell.

The latter in leaving Mount Victoria, the crest of the eastern chain near the latitude of Sydney, passes over granite in the vale of Clwyd, and over porphyry in approaching Bathurst. Between Bathurst and the Conobolas, he mentions trap and limestone; about Buree, and for some miles to the N.W. nothing but granite; near Mount Juson he finds trap, but Mr. Oxley describes Harvey's range to the north of that as consisting of granite. North of the Goobung River, Sir T. Mitchell describes schistose rocks dipping to the east at 60°, while around Marga S.W. of Buree, he mentions purple clay slate and a ridge of granite. Mounts Amyot, Cunningham, and Allan, are said to be ferruginous sandstone, like that afterwards to be described on the Darling River. We then hear of chlorite slate at Hard Hill, and of quartz, clay slate and ferruginous sandstone at the Kalingalungaguy River, where the general strike of