, from the summit of the cliffs
forming the sides of the Gully, which are of the boldest and most
precipitous character. The ground on the summit is full of caves of
great depth, but there has been a difficulty in examining them, in
consequence of the violent wind that rushes up them, and extinguishes
every torch.

The open and grassy forests of Argyle are terminated by another of
those abrupt sand-stone passes I have just described, and the traveller
again falls considerably from his former level, previously to his
entering on Yass Plains, to which this pass is the only inlet.

From Yass Plains the view to the S. and S.W. is over a lofty and broken
country: mountains with rounded summits, others with towering peaks,
and others again of lengthened form but sharp spine, characterise the
various rocks of which they are composed. The ranges decline rapidly
from east to west, and while on the one hand the country has all the
appearance of increasing height, on the other it sinks to a dead level;
nor on the distant horizon to the N. W. is there a hill or an
inequality to be seen.

From Yass Plains to the very commencement of the level interior, every
range I crossed presented a new rock-formation; serpentine quartz in
huge white masses, granite, chlorite, micaceous schist, sandstone,
chalcedony, quartz, and red jasper, and conglomerate rocks.

It was however, out of my power, in so hurried a journey as that which
I performed down the banks of the Morumbidgee River, to examine with
the accuracy I could have wished, either the immediate connection
between these rocks or their gradual change from the one to the other.
I was content to ascertain their actual succession, and to note the
general outlines of the ranges; but the defect of vision under which I
labour, prevents me from laying them before the public.

CHARACTER OF THE SOIL CONNECTED WITH GEOLOGICAL FORMATION.

From what has been advanced, however, it will appear that the physical
structure of the southern parts of the colony is as varied, as that of
the western interior is monotonous, and we may now pursue our original
observations on the soil of the colony with greater confidence.

In endeavouring to account for the poverty of the soil in New South
Wales, and in attributing it in a great degree to the causes already
mentioned, it appears necessary to estimate more specifically the
influence which the geological formation of a country exercises on its
soil, and