Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 1.djvu/285

 partions were made thr lea,in� the pla which lB11. has afforded us so good an opportunity o/repair- Jaly l ing our defects. The basis of the country in the vicinity of this fiver, is evidently granitic; and, from the abrupt and primitive appearance of the land about Cape Tribulation and to the .north of W .eary Bay, there is eve reason to suppose that grauite is also the principal feature of those mountains; but the rocks that lie loosely scattered about the beaches and surface of the hills on the south side of the entrance are of quartzose substance; and this 1/kewise is the character of th6 hills at the east end of the long northern beach, where the rocks are coated with a quartzose crust, that in its crumbled state forms a very unproductive soil. The hills on the south side of the port recede from the banks of the river, and form an amphi- theatre of low grassy land, and some tolerable soil, upon the surface of which, in nny parts, we found large blocks of granite heaped one upon another. Near the tent we found coal; but the presence of this mineral in a primitive country, at an immense distance from any part where a coal formation is known to exist, would p.uzzle the gee- log/st, were I not to explain all I know upon the subject Upon referring to the late Sir ,Joseph Banks's copy of the Endeavour's log, (in the possession of my friend Mr. Brown,) I found the

�