9 degrees 57 minutes 30
seconds, and in E. long. 145 degrees 43 minutes 30 seconds, the mean
variation being 6.32 easterly. It consists of two hills that appear to
have been rent asunder by some convulsion of nature, since the passage
between them is narrow and their inner faces are equally perpendicular.
The hill which I have named after the late Surveyor-general, is steep
on all sides; but the other gradually declines from the south, and at
length loses itself in a large plain that extends to the north. It is
from four to five miles in length, and is picturesque in appearance,
and lightly wooded. A few cypresses were growing on Oxley's Table Land;
but it had, otherwise, very little timber upon its summit. Both hills
are of sandstone formation, and there are some hollows upon the last
that deserve particular notice. They have the appearance of having been
formed by eddies of water, being deeper in the centre than at any other
part, and contain fragments and slabs of sandstone of various size and
breadth, without a particle of soil or of sand between them. It is to
be observed that the edges of these slabs, which were perfect
parallelograms, were unbroken, and that they were as clean as if they
had only just been turned out of the hand of the mason. We counted
thirteen of these hollows in one spot about twenty-five feet in
diameter, but they are without doubt of periodical formation, since a
single hollow was observed lower than the summit of the hill upon its
south extremity, that had evidently long been exposed to the action of
the atmosphere, and had a general coating of moss over it.
CONTINUE THE JOURNEY; DOWN NEW YEAR'S CREEK.
We left Oxley's Table Land on the morning of the 31st of January,
pursuing a northern course through the brush and across a large plain,
moving parallel to the smaller hill, and keeping it upon our left. The
soil upon this plain differed in character from that on the plains to
the eastward, and was much freer from sand. We stopped to dine at a
spot, whence Oxley's Table Land bore by compass, S. by W., distant
about twelve miles. Continuing our journey, at 2 p.m. we cleared the
plain, and entered a tract covered with the polygonum junceum, on a
soil evidently the deposit of floods. Box-trees were thinly scattered
over it, and among the polygonum, the crested pigeons were numerous.
These general appearances, together with a dip of country to the
N.N.W., made us conclude that we were approach
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