Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/23

 survey, I will commence my observations on the northern part of the territory of New South Wales, by a minute description of that river; especially noticing those peculiarities in the geological formation, soil, and botanical productions, which distinguish the MacLeay from the rivers in the south country.

The general character of the country on the banks of the other rivers, north of Port Stephens, viz.: the Manning, the Hastings, the Clarence, the Richmond, the Tweed, the Brisbane, &c. being, with some little variation, nearly similar to that at the MacLeay, a more brief notice of their natural features will suffice.

The MacLeay river disembogues in Trial bay, lat. 30&deg; 40' S. The entrance is obstructed by a bar of sand, the position of which is not unfrequently altered by floods and other causes; it,has, however, generally sufficient water on it for vessels drawing eleven feet. Trial bay is a good roadstead, being completely protected from all winds but those between north and east, from which quarters the winds are seldom strong. The basis of the country in the immediate vicinity of the mouth of the MacLeay river, is a pink granite, overlaid occasionally by dark-coloured rock of trap formation; a few miles west of the bar, this granite rises abruptly to an altitude of nearly two thousand feet in the Yarra-Hapinni range; which is the termination of the range dividing the basin of the