minutes E. The same substance was
found on the banks of the Darling, in lat. 29 degrees 49 minutes S.,
and in long. 145 degrees 18 minutes E.

A reference to the chart will show that the Morumbidgee, from the first
of the above positions, may be said to have entered the almost dead
level of the interior. No elevation occurs to the westward for several
hundreds of miles. A coarse grit occasionally traversed the beds of the
rivers, and their lofty banks of clay or marl appear to be based on
sandstone and granitic sand. The latter occurs in slabs of four inches
in thickness, divided by a line of saffron-coloured sand, and seems to
have been subjected to fusion, as if the particles or grains had been
cemented together by fusion.

The first decided break that takes place in the level of the interior
occurs upon the right bank of the Murray, a little below the junction
of the Rufus with it. A cliff of from 120 to 130 feet in perpendicular
elevation here flanks the river for about 200 yards, when it recedes
from it, and forms a spacious amphitheatre that is occupied by
semicircular hillocks, that partake of the same character as the cliff
itself; the face of which showed the various substances of which it was
composed in horizontal lines, that if prolonged would cut the same
substance in the hillocks. Based upon a soft white sandstone, a bed of
clay formed the lowest part of the cliff; upon this bed of clay, a bed
of chalk reposed; this chalk was superseded by a thick bed of
saponaceous earth, whilst the summit of the cliff was composed of a
bright red sand. Semi-opal and hydrate of silex were found in the
chalk, and some beautiful specimens of brown menelite were collected
from the upper stratum of the cliff.

A little below this singular place, the country again declines, when a
tertiary fossil formation shows itself, which, rising gradually as an
inclined plain, ultimately attains an elevation of 300 feet. This
formation continues to the very coast, since large masses of the rock
were observed in the channel of communication between the lake and the
ocean; and the hills to the left of the channel were based upon it.
This great bank cannot, therefore, average less than from seventy to
ninety miles in width. At its commencement, it strikingly resembled
skulls piled one on the other, as well in colour as appearance. This
effect had been produced by the constant rippling of water against the
rock. The softer parts had b