Page:A sketch of the physical structure of Australia.djvu/62

50 description of shell with bones and teeth of sharks and other animals have been subsequently found in the upper part of the beds, and the summits are in many places covered with oyster shells, so little changed by time as to appear as if they had only just been thrown in a heap on the ground they occupy," (p. 29). On comparing this account with Sir T. Mitchell's description of the Glenelg, and knowing" there are level plains all the way between, we can scarcely hesitate to conclude that these two localities only exhibit sections of the same widespread formation. It is worthy of remark, that in descending the Murray, in his former travels, Captain Sturt speaks of "ironstone" as the first rock seen on approaching the tertiary formation. He also describes in his last book, numerous sand dunes on the face of the country which is composed of the fossil formation, near the Murray, and says, near Mount Misery and Rufus River (long. 141&deg; and thereabouts) the Murray is flanked by high level plains on both sides, that the cliffs are 100 or 120 feet high, composed of clay and sand, the faces of which are deeply and delicately grooved, so as to present an appearance of fretwork (p. 89), and that near the great bend of the Murray, (in long. 140&deg;, 45'), the hills are of a yellow and white colour, the rock being a soft and pliable sandstone (p. 88). These rocks are evidently all either of the tertiary formation, or are still more recent accumulations. In describing a traverse he made from this spot,