The country we passed over this day was upon the whole richer in point of
grass than any we had seen since we left Sydney; I therefore suspected
that the soil had some better rock for a basis than sandstone; and I had
reason to believe that it was limestone, from indications of subsidence
which I observed on the surface.

CURIOUS CHARACTER OF AN ORIGINAL SURFACE.

We had discovered no similar country during either of the two former
journeys. There were none of the acacia trees we had seen on the lower
Bogan; while the grasses were also different from any of those on the
Darling. A fine new species of Daviesia, very like a Grevillea and
forming a most singular bush, grew here. It had no leaves, but green
branches formed into short, broad, thick vertical plates arranged
spirally, and much lower than the little axillary clusters of flowers
which were just beginning to open.* We also met with bushes of the rare
Trymalium majoranaefolium, a hoary bush with clusters of small grey
flowers, enclosed when young in a bright, large membranous involucre.
Once or twice distant rows of lofty gumtrees appeared to indicate the
line of the river; but on approaching them we found either dry hollows or
the same ana-branch, as it seemed, on which we last encamped. I observed
at several places that the more dense box-forests near this branch of the
river were skirted with ground broken into low undulations six or eight
feet square. These appeared where there was great depth of soil, and were
probably caused by deep rents or cracks opened at the first induration of
the deposit, and subsequently modified by rain and other atmospheric
agents. This seems to be the state of the deep deposits at the present
day where, from the absence of trees, the surface of tenacious soils
remains visible. I was first struck with this effect in the clays near
the Darling where alternate saturation and desiccation seemed to check
all vegetation. On the upper parts of the Bogan also I saw these
inequalities on a very large scale, but there the hollows still exist
under dense forests of casuarinae, and are so deep and extensive that I
for some time was induced to examine them in hopes of finding water; but
from a small hole or fissure still remaining there I soon learnt that any
such search was hopeless.

(*Footnote. D. pectinata, Lindley manuscripts; glabra, aphylla, ramis
lateralibus ensiformibus crassis rigidis spinosis verticalibus pectinatim
spiralibus dors