Page:Madras Journal of Literature and Science, series 1, volume 6 (1837).djvu/329

1837.] being confined to the warmer latitudes. Dr. Paris has given an account of a modern formation of sandstone on the northern coast of Cornwall, where a large surface is so covered with a calcarious sand that it becomes agglutinated into stone, which he considers as analogous to the rocks of Guadalope, and of which the specimens I have seen resemble those presented by Beaufort to the Geological Society from the shore at Rhodes. Dr. Paris ascribes the concretion not to the agency of the sea, nor to an excess of carbonic acid, but to the solution of carbonate of lime itself in water, and subsequent percolation through calcarious sand, the great hardness of the stone arising from the very sparing solubility of this carbonate, and consequently very gradual formation of the deposit. Dr. McCulloch describes calcarious concretions, found in banks of sand in Perthshire, which present a great variety of stalactitic forms, generally more or less complicated, and often exceedingly intricate and strange, and which appear to be analogous to those of King George's Bound and Severns Island, and he mentions as not unfrequcntly occurring in sand in different parts of England (the sand above the fossil bones of Norfolk is given as an example) long cylinders or tubes composed of sand agglutinated by carbonate of lime, or calcarious stalactite entangling sand, which, like the concretions of Madeira and those taken for corals at Bald Head, have been ranked improperly with organic remains. See King's Australia, appendix p. 595.—Swan river (Riviere des cygnes) upon this part of the coast, latitude 31-25 to 32, was examined by the French expedition. The rock in its neighbourhood consisted altogether of sandy and calcarious incrustations in horizontal beds, enclosing it is stated, shells and the roots and even trunks of trees.— Peron. vol 1, p. 179—Freycinet, p. 5—170. sandstone, which hardens an exposure to the air, and answers well for building purposes; in some situations shells and the roots of trees are found imbedded in it; I have not observed the trunks of trees in it as mentioned by the French navigators. The Darling range of mountains, which rise about two thousand feet above the level of the sea, and are capped with fine evergreen mahogany, are chiefly granite, with some quartz. The cleaning of the ground and the tillage are not very laborious, but, from the high price of labour, an expensive work; oxen which cost from forty to fifty pounds per pair, and horses from fifty to one hundred and fifty each, are used in the ploughs; and farming is carried on in the English style, as far as practicable: the crops are sowed in May, June, July, and August, and sometimes so late as September, and reaped in December, January and February; the early crops succeed the best.

Along the banks of the rivers may be seen fields of wheat, barley, oats, peas, potatoes, turnips, pumpkins, Indian wheat, &c. intermixed with fine pasture land. The sandy soil is covered with coarse herbage, on which cattle thrive remarkably well; on the good soil, about sixteen kinds of grasses are met with, amongst which the kangaroo grass is conspicuous. The gardens furnish most kind of edible vegetables in great abundance; some of which may be obtained at all seasons. Amongst these are cabbages, endive, beet, parsley, cresses,