Page:Australia, from Port Macquarie to Moreton Bay.djvu/41

 narrow glens of frowning precipices, 3000 feet in elevation, whilst the surrounding mountains frequently attain an elevation of 6000 feet above the level of the sea. Tremendous cataracts are of continual occurrence; at one of them the whole river has a perpendicular fall of 250 feet, and after raging in a furious torrent, half foam and vapour, along a steep, inclined plane, it again dashes down another perpendicular fall of 100 feet, the total descent of its waters in this short distance being, probably, little under 500 feet. The sublimity of these falls cannot be surpassed by the finest waterfalls of the Alps, especially when the MacLeay is swollen by rain;—the untrodden forest crowning the towering precipices, the dazzling spray, and boiling foam, and the mighty roar of the torrent, reverberating with a deafening sound through the narrow glen, cannot fail to strike the spectator with admiration.

The geological formation of this part of the MacLeay river is principally basalt; it is characterized by lofty mountains, rent with perpendicular fissures, and faced with lofty precipices. After tracing, the river MacLeay upwards, through this rugged country, its bed rising rapidly to a very considerable elevation above the sea, we at length emerge on a gently rising table land. From this point to its sources, the MacLeay river, and the scenery on its banks, are totally different to what I have hitherto described, owing to the difference of temperature,