men with me) being ill, I determined to halt here for
breakfast and, having completed this meal, I was sorry to find that he
was still too unwell to proceed; such however being the case I was
compelled to halt for the day: leaving Coles therefore to take care of
him, I strolled off to explore the valley alone. Except in being much
larger it differed in no respect from the first in which we encamped, and
I found that within about half a mile below the spot where I had left the
men it terminated in a salt-water inlet, nearly choked up with mangroves.
On returning to them I found Mustard somewhat better; to our annoyance
however heavy rain set in, accompanied by thunder and lightning; and as
we had no shelter but what some overhanging rocks afforded us we passed a
very uncomfortable night.

December 19.

Mustard was still not quite well; we therefore started late and travelled
slowly, keeping nearly in a south-east direction. We thus gradually
ascended the second sandstone range, the summit of which was a tableland,
at this point about half a mile wide.

GEOLOGICAL PHENOMENA.

We here remarked a very curious circumstance. Several acres of land on
this elevated position were nearly covered with lofty isolated sandstone
pillars of the most grotesque and fantastic shapes, from which the
imagination might easily have pictured to itself forms equally singular
and amusing. In one place was a regular unroofed aisle, with a row of
massive pillars on each side; and in another there stood upon a pedestal
what appeared to be the legs of an ancient statue, from which the body
had been knocked away.

Some of these time-worn columns were covered with sweet-smelling
creepers, while their bases were concealed by a dense vegetation, which
added much to their very singular appearance. The height of two or three
which I measured was upwards of forty feet; and, as the tops of all of
them were nearly upon the same level, that of the surrounding country
must at one period have been as high as their present summits, probably
much higher.

From the top of one of these pillars I surveyed the surrounding country
and saw on every side proofs of the same extensive degradation--so
extensive, indeed, that I found it very difficult to account for; but the
gurgling of water, which I heard beneath me, soon put an end to the state
of perplexity in which I was involved, for I ascertained that streams
were running in the earth beneath my feet; and, on