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Strelezki on New South Wales The Sydney Morning Herald 27 March 1846
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The
main object of Mr. de Strelezki's visit to this colony, was, he says, to examine its mineralogy. The
paucity, however, of simple minerals disappointed him; but he discovered,
instead, that "the country
presented a vast field for a most exciting and interesting geological
investigation." Viewed
through "the medium of Geology, it
at once assumed the aspect of an historical ground, where, in the absence of
monuments and records of human generations, nature unfolds annals of wonders;
not, indeed, that they can be so called, as furnishing new lights thrown upon
the origin of things; but as yielding additional evidence that the structure
to which they relate is analogous to that of the rest of the globe."
The
survey eventually was confined to the country "parallel with and stretching inland from the sea-coast, and
comprehended between the 30th and 39th degrees of south latitude,"
or to 81,000 square miles of territory, a tolerably large space for the
investigation of an unassisted individual, who, in its accomplishment, had to
travel on foot, laden with instruments, not less than 7000 miles. Neither
perseverance nor devotion to the pursuit was wanting. But
these (he adds) have procured me the consciousness of how little I have done,
and how much is still needful to complete such a
delineation as the geology of the present day requires. And
all that I have collected during five years of labour I can view only as
rudiments of what science may expect at a future period, from the division of
labour, and from the unparalleled progress of intellectual and commercial
development of New South Wales and Van Dieman's
Land. To
illustrate this, the author prepared a geological map, 25 feet long and 5
feet wide, on a scale of four miles to an inch, a reduced copy of which,
geologically coloured, is appended to his book. In
addition in that, a sheet of sections on equal scales, 26 feet by 3 feet, was
also prepared: this is not yet published. The
colouring is on an original plan of the author. It
may be suspected, that future investigations will show the necessity of
considerable modifications of some of the divisional boundaries of his
territory. The
reduced map embracing only general features, must
be, by far, the safest. The
third section of the author's outline embraces the general physical and
geological aspect of the two colonies, and is chiefly occupied in tracing the
features pointed out on the map. It
cannot he expected that we are to transfer this (though a very interesting
statement) to our columns. But it may be mentioned, that it contains a
history of the great dividing ranges, as they are called, from New England in
30° south to the southern extremity of Tasmania. The
interest attached to this exploration of a mountain range, which has been
compared to the Cordilleia of America, and the Oural chain of Russia, is considerably heightened by the
poetical language in winch the author has clothed his scientific conclusions. As
a fair specimen of the author's powers as well as describing a locality but
little known, we may take the following account of the part of the dividing
chain called the Australian Alps. The
cluster of broken peaks which mark the sources of the Murrumbidgee, Coudradigbee, and the Doomut;
the ridges which form walls as it were for their respective courses; indeed
the whole structure of the spurs about this locality imparts to them the
character of bold outworks in advance of that prominent group of mountains,
known in New South Wales under the name of the Australian Alps. Conspicuously
elevated above all the heights hitherto noticed in this cursory view, and
swollen by many ragged protuberances, the snowy and craggy sienitic cone of Mount Kosciuszko is seen cresting the
Australian Alps, in all the sublimity of mountain scenery. Its
altitude reaches 6500 feet, and the view from its summit reaches over 7000
square miles. Standing
above the adjacent mountains, which could either detract from its imposing
aspect or interrupt the view, Mount Kosciuszko is one of those few
elevations, the ascent of which, far from disappointing, presents the traveller with all that can remunerate fatigue. In
the north-eastern view, the eye is carried as far back as the Shoalhaven country, the ridges of all the spurs of Moneiro and Twofold Bay, as well as those which, to the
westward, inclose the tributaries of the
Murrumbidgee, being conspicuously delineated. Beneath
the feet, looking from the very verge of the cone downwards almost
perpendicularly, the eye plunges into a fearful gorge, 3000 feet deep, in the
bed of which the sources of the Murray gather their contents, and roll their
united waters to the west. To
follow the course of the river from this gorge into its further windings, is to pass from the sublime to the beautiful. The
valley of the Murray, as it extends beneath the travellers
feet, with the peaks of Corunal, Dargal, Mundiar, and Tumbarumba, crowning the spur which separates it from the
valley of the Murrumbidgee, displays beauties to be compared only to those
seen among the valleys of the Alps. From Mount Kosciuszko, the chain resuming
its south-west direction, still maintains the same bold character, but with
diminished height. To
the right and left, its ramifications are crowned by peaks, rendering the
appearance of the country rugged and sterile. With the vicinity of Lake Omeo, and a part of the Mitta Mitta
Valley, lying between the space crowned by Mount Yabbara
and that surmounted by Mount Ajuk, a tract
resembling a vast basin, without trees, and scantily supplied with water, but
covered even during a parching summer with luxurious pasture, the whole
region westward of the chain, towards Western Port, is rent by narrow gullies
almost inaccessible, either by reason of the steepness of the ridges which
flank them, or by the thick interwoven underwood
which covers the country. (Page 61-63) We
have space for but one more short extract:- At
Wilson's Promontory the sea interferes with the visible continuity of the
range, but does not terminate its course. On
a fine day that course may be traced from the top of the headland beautifully
delineated by the chain of islands in Bass's Strait. Those
islands, whether high and crowned with peaks, or low and crested only by the
white sparkling foam of the sea, appear in their winding and lengthened array
like the glittering and snowcapped domes of the Andes. When
seen above the region of the dense, clouds which bathe their lower regions,
(Page 64.) Having
described the physical characters of the chain, the author refers the
phenomena reinvestigated to four epochs of terrestrial revolutions;
concerning which arrangement it is foreign to our purpose to say more than
that, however correct the details may, for the most part be,
much remains to fill up the outline thus given. And,
perhaps, one of these so called epochs will be merged in the others. The
author has, however, shown a very philosophical spirit in thus speaking of
the geological formations of Australia; for it is the height of rashness to
bind down the conditions of a new country to the predetermined arrangements
of a theory which originated in the development of phenomena exhibited in
another hemisphere and under different conditions. On
this point, there is a valuable paper by Mr. Jukes, of H.M.S. Fly, in the
Tasmanian Journal. In
fact, had Australia been discovered years ago, it is not improbable that
geology would have been much modified by, the results of investigations into
the physical features of its extensive islands, before the present systems of
Europe had been established. All
those persons, however, who have, with any pretence to judgment, investigated
these features, have come to nearly the same conclusion as our author's; and
have, far from adopting the vulgar prejudice as to the recent origin of New
South Wales, expressed their conviction that it is chiefly composed of rock
formations that lie in the exact parallel of the carboniferous rocks of Europe
and the underlying Devonians, which overlie deposits and amorphous rocks of
ages equivalent with those of Silurian and partly primary systems. The
very remarkable fact is, that all the deposits above the English great coal
formation - in short the whole of the lower and upper secondary systems are
wanting in Australia; the only younger rocks being of the most recent
tertiary age - a circumstance of great importance, and which, perhaps, the
author has not sufficiently weighed. It
is very certain that tertiary deposits do exist on the Murray, not far from
Port Phillip, and in other spots; but the only notice given in this work is
of one or two localities in Van Diemen's Land. The
number of proofs of elevation in comparatively recent times, collected by the
author, (and which are but few in comparison with the number known to be
accessible) added to the preceding facts, lead to the inference, that New
South Wales and Tasmania were above the ocean during the whole period, in
which the greater part of Europe was yet under water, and that it did not
descend except in few and distant localities, until the whole enormous mass
of the European secondaries, from the new red sandstone to the chalk
inclusive, and part of the tertiaries, had been
deposited; after which some portions descended and received partial
accumulations of marine detritus, since which the country has risen again to
a higher level. These
conclusions, deduced from independent surveys, are confirmed by the contents
of Mr. De Strelezki's work, and by the examination
of the Fossil Fauna and Flora collected by him, as described in an elaborate
essay by Mr. Morris. That
the elevation is yet apparently going on is a corroborating fact; and these
phenomena, whilst they give enormous antiquity to the singular classes of
indigenous animals and plants inhabiting Australia, point to succeeding
changes in the superficial conditions of the soil, which, conspiring with
human labour and cultivation, bid fair to change the whole aspect of a once
moist but now drier, and to become still drier, country. The
facts detailed by the author exhibit a wide-spread existence of carboniferous
deposits; will other observations confirm the opinion, that nearly the whole
of the great sandstone territory of New South Wales, so sterile and dry
above, contains vast deposits of that useful mineral which is the produce of a former abundant vegetation, and which
hereafter may be employed by our descendants in extending the boundaries of
civilization, arts, and manufactures, and in assisting the spread of
scriptural truth. It
is indeed a remarkable fact, that wherever the Anglo-Saxon race have
established themselves those depositaries of fossil fuel are found to exist;
and to the contemplative mind, this thought may be found productive of much
interesting and useful enquiry into the probable future destiny of these vast
insulated regions inhabited by the descendants of those who were in ancient
times denominated "toto divisos orbet Britannos." The
subject of the coal formation in Van Diemen's Land was well investigated by
the Count De Strelezki; but we think he has been
too hasty in concluding (as he does at p. 129) that the " variegated
sandstone about Sydney, with the variegated sandstone and yellow limestone,
with bulimus and helix of Hobart Town, and above
which no other foundation has yet been found, constitute the highest beds in
geological series of the two colonies. There
are beds of coal unquestionably younger than much of this variegated
sandstone, which is, we are certain, part only of a series of beds in which
coal is interpolated. In
notices of such a work as that before us, it is not possible that the columns
of any journal can be appropriated to a sufficient investigation of any
points of doubt suggested to the reader or reviewer; but it would be
injurious to our object, if we on this occasion hastily dispatched a matter
of great importance to our fellow colonists. We
must therefore defer to another occasion the remainder of our remarks on this
part of the subject. |