gives an elevation of about 377 feet for the
height of a spot on its banks distant only one mile from the sea; and if
we conceive the average increase of elevation to the sandstone tableland
to be only 200 feet in every mile (and I believe it to have been more) we
shall have 1400 feet for the elevation of the tableland which formed one
of the highest parts of Macdonald's Range.

ELEVATION OF HILLS.

After passing across this range we again descended rapidly into the low
country, the face of which is much broken by conical hills composed of
basalt. The heights of some of these hills above their base, which had a
considerable elevation above the sea level, were in three instances as
follows:

February 28.

The measured height of a hill above its base was 331 feet.

March 4.

Measured the altitude of a hill above its base and found it to be 222
feet.

March 8.

Measured the altitude of a hill above its base and found it to be 229.5
feet.

None of these hills had apparently near so great an elevation as the
sandstone range of which they were under-features. At this period our
barometer was unfortunately broken. We now proceeded up the banks of the
Glenelg and arrived at many hills and conical peaks, apparently much
higher than those I had measured; yet on afterwards passing the river and
attaining the summit of the opposite sandstone range, we looked down upon
them as hills of far inferior elevation to those on which we stood. From
this circumstance, and from the very perceptible change of temperature we
experienced, I should think the altitude of the farthest point of
Stephen's Range which we reached must have been 2,500 or 3,000 feet above
the sea.

CHARACTER OF THE RIVERS.

The rivers in North-western Australia much resemble in character those of
the south-eastern parts of the continent. They rise at no very great
distance from the sea. Near their sources they are mountain torrents, but
in the lowlands they become generally streams with slow currents, winding
through fertile and extensive valleys or plains which are liable to
sudden and terrific inundations, caused, I conceive, by the rain which
falls in that part of the mountains where the rivers take their rise; for
at one period, when we had our encampment on the bank of the small stream
near the sea at Hanover Bay, I was myself distant about fourteen miles in
the interior in the direction of its source, where we had heavy rain; and
on my return I fou