Osseous breccia.

The first limestone we examined had no crevices sufficiently large to admit our bodies; but on riding five miles southward to Oakey creek we found a low ridge extending some miles on its left bank which promised many openings.  We soon found one which I considered to be of the right sort, namely a perpendicular crevice with red tuff about the sides.  Being provided with candles and ropes we descended perpendicularly first, about six fathoms to one stage, then obliquely, about half as far to a sort of floor of red earth; Mr. Rankin, although a large man, always leading the way into the smallest openings.  By these means and by crawling through narrow crevices we penetrated to several recesses, until Mr. Rankin found some masses of osseous breccia beneath the limestone rock but so wedged in that they could be extracted only by digging.  Unlike the same red substance at Wellington Valley where it was nearly as hard as the limestone, the red calcareous tuff found here was so loose that the mass of bones was easily detached from it; but none of them were perfect, except one or two vertebrae of a very large species of kangaroo.  Pursuing this lode of osseous earth we traced it to several other recesses and in the lower side of an indurated mass (the upper part having been the floor of our first landing place) we found two imperfect skulls of Dasyuri, the teeth being however very well preserved.  This was, doubtless, an unvisited cave; for the natives have an instinctive or superstitious dread of all such places, and it is not therefore probable that man had ever before visited that cavern.  With all our ropes it cost some of us trouble to get out of it, after passing two hours in candle-light.  It may thus be imagined what a vast field for such interesting researches remains still unexplored in that district where limestone occurs in such abundance.

The objects of my journey did not admit of further indulgence in the pursuit at that time; and I was content with drawing the attention of one of the party, a young gentleman residing in the neighbourhood, to it, in hopes he might discover some bones of importance.*

(Footnote.  See a further account of these caves and some others in Chapter 3.15 below.)

Mount Granard, first point to be attained.

March 19.

Our stores being completed we proceeded along the course of the little rivulet of Buree, towards the Lachlan.  My first object was to gain Mount Granard, described by Mr. Oxley as the most elevated pic of a very high range, and laid down on his map to the westward of where the Lachlan takes a remarkable turn from its general direction towards the low country more to the southward.  I had long thought that it might be possible to ascertain from this hill whether any range extended westward of sufficient magnitude to separate the basins of the Murray and the Darling.