confirm in my mind the opinion I have
already given, not only of the comparatively recent appearance above
the ocean of the level country over which I had passed, but that the true
dip of the interior is from north to south.

In support of the first of these conclusions, it would appear that a
current of water must have swept the vast accumulation of shells, forming
the great fossil bank through which the Murray passes from the northern
extremity of the continent, to deposit them where they are; and it would
further appear from the gradual rise of this bed, on an inclined plain
from N.N.E. to S.S.W., that it must in the first instance, have swept
along the base of the ranges, but ultimately turned into the above
direction by the convexity of the mountains at the S.E. angle of the
coast. From the circumstance, moreover, of the summit of the fossil
formation being in places covered with oyster shells, the fact of the
whole mass having been under water is indisputable, and leads us naturally
to the conclusion that the depressed interior beyond it must have been
under water at the same time.

It was proved by barometrical admeasurement, that the cataract of the
Macquarie was 680 feet above the level of the sea, and, in like manner,
it was found that the depot of Mr. Oxley, on the Lachlan, was only 500,
there being a still greater fall of country beyond these two points.
The maximum height of the fossil bank was 300 feet; and if we suppose a
line to be drawn from its top to the eastward, that line would pass over
the marshes of the two rivers, and would cut them at a point below which
they both gradually diminish. Hence I am brought to conclude that in
former times the sea washed the western base of the dividing ranges, at or
near the two points whose respective elevations I have given; and that
when the mass of land now lying waste and unproductive, became exposed,
the rivers, which until then had pursued a regular course to the ocean,
having no channel beyond their original termination, overflowed the almost
level country into which they now fall; or, filling some extensive
concavity, have contributed, by successive depositions, to the formation
of those marshes of which so much has been said. I regret extremely, that
my defective vision prevents me giving a slight sketch to elucidate
whet I fear I have, in words, perhaps, failed in making sufficiently
intelligible.

GEOLOGICAL REMARKS.

Now, as we know not by what mea