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 parts of it, but more particularly in the
neighbourhood of Wellington Valley. The local interest which has of late
years been taken in the prosecution of geological investigations, led many
gentlemen to examine the contents of these caverns; and among the most
forwar