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.