eared upon the
banks of New-Year's Creek as suddenly as they had disappeared after we
left the marshes, and grew along the line of the Darling to unusual
size. But it is remarkable, that, even in the midst of the marshes, the
blue-gum trees were strictly confined to the immediate flooded spaces
on which the reeds prevailed, or to the very beds of the water-courses.
Where the ground was elevated, or out of the reach of flood, the box
(unnamed) alone occupied it; and, though the branches of these trees
might be interwoven together, the one never left its wet and reedy bed,
the other never descended from its more elevated position. The same
singular distinction marked the acacia pendula, when it ceased to cover
the interior plains of light earth, and was succeeded by another shrub
of the same species. It continued to the banks of New-Year's Creek, a
part of which it thickly lined. To the westward of the creek, another
species of acacia was remarked for the first time. Both shrubs, like
the blue-gum and the box, mixed their branches together, but the creek
formed the line of separation between them. The acacia pendula was not
afterwards seen, but that which had taken its place, as it were, was
found to cover large tracts of country and to form extensive brushes.
Many other peculiarities in the vegetation of the interior are noticed
in the body of this work, but I have thought that these more striking
ones deserved to be particularly remarked upon.

GEOLOGICAL FEATURES.

If we strike a line to the N.W. from Sydney to Wellington Valley, we
shall find that little change takes place in the geological features of
the country. The sand-stone of which the first of the barrier ranges is
composed, terminates a little beyond Mount York, and at Cox's River is
succeeded by grey granite. The secondary ranges to the N.W. of
Bathurst, are wholly of that primitive rock; for although there are
partial changes of strata between Bathurst and Moulong Plains, granite
is undoubtedly the rock upon which the whole are based: but at Moulong
Plains, a military station intermediate between Bathurst and Wellington
Valley, limestone appears in the bed of a small clear stream, and with
little interruption continues to some distance below the last-mentioned
place. The accidental discovery of some caves at Moulong Plains, led to
the more critical examination of the whole formation, and cavities of
considerable size were subsequently found in various part