The
Ridges Were Covered With Rusty Gum And Narrow-Leaved Ironbark.
An
Erythrina and the Acacia of Expedition Range were plentiful.
The grass
was rich and of various species. The granite rock still prevailed. A
felspathic rock cropped out near the second creek, where I met with a
dark rock, composed of felspar and horneblende (Diorite.) Our camp was
pitched at the foot of a series of small conical hills, composed of
porphyry. A larger range to the southward of it was also porphyritic,
very hard, as if penetrated by quartz, and containing small crystals of
flesh-coloured felspar. Sienite cropped out on the flats between these
two ranges. I commanded a most extensive view from the higher range. High
and singularly crenelated ranges were seen to the south-west; detached
peaks and hills to the westward; short ranges and peaks to the north; and
considerable ranges between north and north-east. A river was observed to
join the Burdekin from the ranges to the south-west.
Numerous kangaroos were seen bounding over the rocky slopes to the grassy
glens below. A stunted silver-leaved Ironbark covered the hills.
April 10. - The night was very cold, particularly towards morning, and the
dew heavy; the morning was calm; a breeze from the south-east set in at
nine o'clock a.m.; cumuli formed about eleven o'clock, and became very
heavy during the afternoon.
The country over which we travelled about eight miles N. by W., was one
of the finest we had seen. It was very open, with some plains, slightly
undulating or rising into ridges, beautifully grassed and with sound
ground. We crossed the river I had seen the preceding day from the hill,
and found it running. Two large creeks, one from the right and the other
from the left, also joined the Burdekin. I observed Pegmatite of a white
colour, and hornblende Porphyry and Diorite. A shrubby Clerodendron and
an arborescent Bursaria, covered with white blossoms, adorned the forest.
The latitude was 20 degrees 0 minutes 36 seconds.
April 11. - We continued our journey up the river, in a W.N.W. direction,
for about ten miles. The first part of our journey lay through a most
beautiful country. The hollows along the river were covered with a dense
sward of various grasses, and the forest was open as far as the eye could
reach. Farther on, however, we occasionally met with patches of Vitex
scrub, and crossed some stony ridges. A small river joined from the
north-east, at about a mile and a half from the last camp, and also two
large creeks from the south-west. I ascended the hills opposite our camp,
and looked over an immense and apparently flat country, out of which
small peaks and short ranges rose. The hills on which I stood were
composed of Pegmatite, with patches of white Mica in large leaflets.
During the journey we found granite changing into gneiss, diorite, and
quartz rock.
On the rocky crest of the hill, I gathered the pretty red and black seeds
of a leguminous climbing shrub (Abrus precatorius). Phonolithic or
basaltic pebbles made me suppose that we were near to a change of
country. Our latitude was 19 degrees 58 minutes 11 seconds.
April 12. - We had scarcely travelled a mile and a half, when we had to
cross a large creek, which increased in size higher up. Box-tree flats
and open Vitex scrub extended along its banks, and the latter, according
to Mr. Roper's account, changed into dense Bricklow scrub. At the
junction of the creek and the river, we came on a dyke of basalt, the
flat summit of which was so rough that we were compelled to travel along
the flats of the creek, which for a long distance ran parallel to the
Burdekin. The soil on the basalt was so shallow that it sustained only a
scanty vegetation of grass and some few scattered narrow-leaved Ironbark
trees. We crossed this dyke, however, and at about three miles descended
from it into a fine narrow-leaved Ironbark flat, extending along the
river, in which another large creek from the south-west joined the
Burdekin. The flat was bounded by hills of limestone, cropping out in
large blocks, with visible stratification, but without fossils. Having
passed the third creek in the course of this day's journey, we encamped
on the commencement of another basaltic dyke. The bed of the creek was
full of blocks of Sienite, of hornblende Porphyry, of greenish Pegmatite,
and of cellular Basalt. The river here formed a large sheet of water;
large masses of a white Sienite protruded out of it, opposite the
junction of the creek. The opposite bank exhibited a very perfect and
instructive geological section of variously bent and lifted strata of
limestone, which was afterwards found to contain innumerable fossils,
particularly corals and a few bivalve shells. The Rev. W. B. Clarke, of
Paramatta, kindly undertook to examine the fossils brought from this
locality. One he determined to be an undescribed species of Cyathophyllum,
and has done me the honour to give my name to it [Refer Note 1 at end of
chapter]. The others belonged principally to the following genera, viz.,
Asterias, Caryophyllea, and Madrepora. The right bank of the river rose
into steep cliffs of basalt, under which the clustered fig tree, with its
dense foliage, formed a fine shady bower. The basaltic dyke was about a
mile and a half broad, and I followed it about five miles up the river.
Its summit was flat, rough, and rocky; at the distance of four miles from
our camp it receded a little from the river, and there limestone was
observed, crowded with fossils like that on the opposite side of the
river. Two miles farther, the bed of the river was formed by a felspathic
rock, with beautiful dendrites. A small island, with a chain of lagoons
on one side, and with the river on the other, was also composed of this
rock, in contact with, and covered by, basalt in several places.
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