CHAPTER VII.

Desolate appearance of the Country-Petrified Trunks of Trees A Stone Forest-Creek, called Kingdon Ponds-Singular Changes-Burning Mountain of Wingan-Stupidity of the Natives Waldron's Ranges-Intense Thirst-A Well Discovered-A night at a Farm-house-The Page Inn-Variation of Climate-Diseases-Cases of Imposture-An effectual Remedy-Salubrity of New South Wales-An Unfortunate Settler-Liverpool Plains-Drays drawn by Bullocks-Beautiful View from the top of the Range A Thirsty Plain-Breeza Station-Interior of a Hut-The Myall Tree-A Bush Shop-Passage of the River Namoi.

AFTER breakfast next morning, we started on our journey, which, for some miles, lay over flats and gently undulating country, here and there divested of timber, and

known as "the Downs." The soil is for the most part rich, being apparently composed of decayed organic matter. But this is a dry part of the country, scarcely producing remunerating crops in the best seasons, and this being a time of drought, the appearance presented was arid and desolate in the extreme. In fact, the whole country at this time had a brown, burnt-up appearance, and the little grass anywhere to be found was of a dull russet hue, and so completely withered that, by rubbing it in your hands you could convert it into a tolerable imitation of "high-dried," or "Irish blackguard."

In crossing these downs, we passed a large number of petrified trunks of trees, standing on end, and projecting from an inch to a foot above the surface, thus, to all appearance, disproving the theory hitherto existing on the subject of petrifaction, namely, the doctrine of the necessity of sub

mersion. It is possible that these downs may have been covered with water in bygone ages, so that the petrified trunks may have at one time been buried in the soil. But it seems more probable that the petrifaction has taken place on the surface, and that the accumulation of soil, from the decomposition of vegetable matter, has in the lapse of time risen to the level of the fossils, and wholly or partially covered them, according to circumstances.

That petrifaction without submergation is possible, and has actually occurred, is proved by the celebrated petrified forest, which, according to a late "Topographical Description of Texas," lies near the head of the Pasigono River:-" Here is a forest of several hundred acres of trees standing, which are turned into stone." It is further stated that "petrifactions existing in many parts of the country show evident marks of recent formation; and trees which are grow

ing are sometimes partially changed into stone." Remarking on this geological phenomenon, Mr. Kennedy, in his "Account of the New Republic of Texas," says that "minute examination will probably deprive this stone forest of much of its marvellous pretensions, which are doubtless owing to silicious springs, or the rapid formation of incrusting concretinary limestone, which readily moulds itself to the shape of a foreign body."

Without entering into the plausibility of this theory, I may state that it can in no way apply to the petrifactions found on the Downs, these being solid and very hard rock, of a yellowish tawny hue, displaying most beautifully the concentric circles, or annual growth, of the timber, and, I believe, yielding fire to steel. The most remarkable feature in their case is, that they appear to exist, as it were, only "between wind and water," that is, between earth and air.

Some lie on the surface, but most project six inches or a foot beyond that, and only reach a depth below the soil equivalent to their projection beyond it. There seem to be few large trunks among them, the common diameter being about a foot, or eighteen inches.

By-and-bye we passed the deep but empty bed of a creek called Kingdon Ponds. This creek, even in moist seasons, is now only a chain of ponds; but I was told by a person who was one of the first settlers on the Downs, that on his first discovery of it, about ten years previously to my visit, it was a large running stream, so deep and wide that he had to ride for a mile or two along its banks before he could find a place fit for crossing. This great change is not peculiar to Kingdon Ponds, but is doubtless universal through the colony; and I have been informed of the same phenomenon in other places, as in a marked instance near

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