Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 2.djvu/602

 GOOLOOV.] NATURAL' HISTORY. :577 the Gulf of Carpentaria; with which the trap-formation pears to be associated. York Sound, one of the principal inlets on this part of the coast, is bounded by precipitous rocks, from one to two hun- dred feet in height; and some conical rocky peaks, which not improbably consist of quartz-rock, were noticed off the eastern side of the entrance. An unpublished sketch, by Captain King, sbews that the banks of Hunter's River, one of the branches of York Sound, at seven or eight miles from its opening, are composed of sand-stone, in beds of great regularity; and this place is also remarkable for a copious spring of freshwtter, one of the rarest phenomena of these thirsty and inhospitable shores*. discovered in this quarter of Australia, is Prince-Regent's , Itiver, about thirty miles to the m)uth-west of York Sound,-- the course of which is almost rectilinear for about fifty miles in a south-eastern direction; a fact which will probably be found to be connected with the geological structure of the country. The genera] character of the banks, which are lofty and abrupt, is precisely the same with that of the rivers falling into York Sound; and the level of the country does not appear to be higher in the interior than near the coast. The banks are from two to four hundred feet in height, and consist of close-grained siliceous sand-stone, of a reddish hue t; and the view, (Plate, vol. ii. p. 46.) sbews that the beds are nearly horizontal, and very regularly disposed; the cascade there represented being about one hundred and sixty feet in height, and the beds om six to twelve feet in thickness. Two conspicuous hills, which Captain King �Narrative, i. p. 40. . Nm'rtive i. p. ,LS4.48'7. and H. p. 46. VOL. 11.  P
 * lne most considerable inlet, however, which has.yet been

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