their character and structure from the accompanying cut, better than from any description I can give.  They were, in fact, wholly different in formation from hills in general.  To the westward there was a low, depressed tract, with an unbroken horizon and a gloomy scrub.  Southwards the country was exceedingly broken, hilly, and confused; but there was a line of hills bounding this rugged region to the eastward, and immediately beyond that range were the plains I had crossed in going to Mount Lyell.  From the point on which we stood there were numerous other projecting points, similar to those of the headlands in the channel, falling outwards at an angle of 55 degrees, as if they had crumbled down from perpendicular precipices.  The faces of these points were of a dirty white, without any vegetation growing on them; they fell back in semicircular sweeps, and the ground behind sloped abruptly down to the plains.  The ranges were all flat-topped and devoid of timber, but the vegetation resembled that of the country at their base, and the fragments of rock scattered over them were similar:  that is to say, milky quartz, wood opal, granite, and other rocks (none of which occurred in the stratification of these ranges), were to be found on their summits as on the plains, and in equal proportion, as if the whole country had once been perfectly level, and that the hills had been forced up.  Such indeed was the impression upon Mr. Poole’s mind, when he returned to me from having visited these ranges.  “They appear,” he remarked, “to have been raised from the plains, so similar in every respect are their tops to the district below.”  Our eyes wandered over an immense expanse of country to the south, and we were enabled to take bearings of many of the hills near the camp, although there was some uncertainty in our recognition of them at the distance of 40 miles.  The Red Hill, however, close to the camp bore south, and was full that distance from us.  We could also see the course of the creeks we had been tracing, ultimately breaking through the range to the eastward and passing into the plains beyond.  Behind us to the north there were many projecting points appearing above the level of the range.  These seemed to be the northern termination of these hills, and beyond them the country was very low.  The outline of the projecting points was hilly, and they were so exactly alike that it would have been impossible to have recognised any to which we might have taken bearings; but there were two little cones in a small range to the north upon which I felt I could rely with greater certainty.  They respectively bore 302 and 306 from me; and as they were the only advanced points on which I could now keep up bearings, although in the midst of hills, I determined as soon as I should have examined the neighbourhood a little more, to proceed to them.  From our first position we went to the next, a hill of about 450 feet in height, perfectly flat-topped, and detached from the main group.