Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/37

 rich loose soil, on which the grass is generally comparatively better than on ranges of other formations. The clay-slate ranges rise in smooth, round, waving summits; they are not in general thickly wooded, and would be pre-eminently suitable for the growth of the vine. It is well known that scarcely any thing exercises so much influence on the quality of wine, as the nature of the rocks and soils among which vines are planted. According to the best authorities, clay-slates seem peculiarly favourable for vines. Thus Albertus Magnus has observed, " that the vines thrive well in earth which is mixed with fragments of black roofing slate." And Humboldt remarks, "that the vines which grow upon the mountains of the valley of the Rhine, consisting of black day-slate' afford a most excellent wine." Dr. Adam, in his remarks on the rocks and soils of the celebrated Constantia vineyards at the Cape of Good Hope, notices also how well the vine thrives in a soil produced by the decomposition of clay-slate, and mixed with the fragments of it.

I have already observed that many caves are met with in the limestone formation at Dongai creek. Mr. Ralfe and myself examined a great number, which he found near the summit of a heavily wooded, brushy range, in the vicinity of Lieutenant Baxter's station. They were full of the stalactites ordinarily met with, but we could discover no traces of ancient organic remains. In the hills at the sources of Parabel brook, I examined a cave of rather singular