Page:History of Australia, Rusden 1897.djvu/102

 rim at the base of the cordillera. Emerging from it, from south to north, are patches of granitic formation. West- ward of the boundary between South Australia and Western Australia these outcrops are less numerous, but when the 123rd degree of E. longitude is reached an enormous tract of granite prevails, with but a narrow fringe of other formations between it and the western ocean. Proofs of active volcanic agency in the past are abundant.

The cordillera in New South Wales presents the same large tracts of Silurian formation, interspersed with granite and basalt, and broken by the vast tract of sandstone which encircles Sydney and spreads to the confines of the rich valley of the Hunter river. The bulk of the interior presents a champaign of tertiary formation. From the 32nd parallel of south latitude to the Gulf of Carpentaria a wide cretaceous band intersects it, while the eastern cordillera abounds in granite, carboniferous, metamorphic, volcanic, and Silurian outcrops.

In a physical sketch of the country the great Barrier Reef deserves mention. After Cook's adventure at the Endeavour River, many ships were wrecked, and new dangers were continually discovered. But the shortness of the route and the calmness of the sea allured the mariner, and reefs extending for hundreds of miles, surrounded by countless coral formations seen and unseen, did not deter the adventurous Anglo-Saxon from the pursuit of gain at the risk of the grave. Steam eventually freed the navigation from its greatest dangers.

Of indigenous fruits Australia could not boast. None but scanty berries incapable of yielding sustenance to man were found. They were pleasant to the curious, but almost useless to the hungry. But what it did not naturally yield Australia was prompt to receive. The rich alluvial soils on the river-flats of the Hawkesbury, the Hunter, the Mackay, and the Clarence are like the banks of the Nile in responding to the farmers' efforts; the basaltic soils of various portions of the cordillera are almost as productive, and are secure from damage by floods. Various elevations invite various fruits. The orange-groves of Sydney stand