Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/40

 to which, in my capacity of Surveyor to the Government, I carried the subdivision of the land into blocks and sections; the country on the north side of the river being now so mountainous and brushy as to be quite unavailable. On the south side of the river, the country, although hilly, is still good, consisting of apple tree and blue gum flats, of the richest soil, and lightly wooded, park-like mountain ranges, affording excellent pasturage for sheep. The ranges hereabout are mostly composed of clay-slate. A very soft, red, schistose rock, the strata of which are nearly vertically disposed, is very frequently met with on the river banks; the surface of this rock is quite disintegrated, and pulverized into minute, angular fragments, and these debris having become intimately combined with the vegetable mould, the result has been the formation of a rich, loose soil, well covered with grass, and which would be, no doubt, eminently suitable for vines. Between Parabel Brook, and Henderson's Creek, the bed of the river consists in several places of a hard, black rock, of trap formation. Stations continue up the river as far as Gonderang Creek, which is about thirty miles beyond Henderson's, the grazing country being confined by the mountains to the mere banks of the river, and its tributary brooks. Above the junction of the MacLeay river with the Apsley, the scenery assumes a grand alpine character; both rivers hurry along rapidly descending beds, through