We also saw some very large red or cinnamon-coloured kangaroos, but never got near enough to secure one; they were apparently identical with a new race, of which I afterwards procured a specimen at Barrow's Island.*
(*Footnote. Osphranter isabellinus. Gould.)
One day, when I had penetrated some considerable distance into the bush, farther indeed than any of our party had strayed before, I saw a large bustard, but was unable to get a shot at him; his anxious and acute gaze had detected me, at the same moment that I had discovered him, and he was off. I thought at the time that he bore a strong resemblance to the wild turkey of the colonists in the southern parts of the continent. We were lucky enough to shoot several quails of apparently quite a new species. In one particular they differed from the members of the genus Coturnis, in having no hind toe. Goannas and lizards were plentiful in this neighbourhood, and some of the latter in particular were most brilliant in colour: they ran down the tall trees, in which they seem to pass a great portion of their lives, at our approach, with a most marvellous rapidity, and darting along the ground, were soon in safety.
ANTHILLS.
But what, perhaps, most attracted our attention, was the very surprising size of the anthills, or nests. I measured one, the height of which was 13 feet, and width at the base 7 feet; from whence it tapered gradually to the apex. They are composed of a pale red earth; but how it is sufficiently tempered, I am unable to state; certain is it, that it has almost the consistence of mortar, and will bear the tread of a man upon the top.
FISH.
The fishing over the ship's side was not less successful than hauling the seine; though quite a different kind of fish was taken to reward the labour of the saltwater Waltonians, who devoted themselves to it. They generally secured (at slack water) a large fish, in shape like a bream, and with long projecting teeth.
February 6.
We made up a party on the 6th for the purpose of penetrating a little way into the interior, and got seven miles from the sea in a South by West direction. Everything wore a green and most delightful appearance; but the reader must bear in mind, how vegetation had just been forced by heavy rains upon a light, heated soil, and also recollect that to one who has been pent up for some time on board ship a very barren prospect may seem delightful.
NATIVE FIRES.
The country was more open in character than I had before noticed it, and the numerous traces of native fires which we found in the course of the excursion, seemed readily to account for this: indeed during dry seasons it not unfrequently happens, that an immense tract of land is desolated with fire, communicated, either by the design or carelessness of the natives, to the dry herbage on the surface. The moment the flame has been kindled it only waits for the first breath of air to spread it far and wide: then on the wings of the wind, the fiery tempest streams over the hillsides and through the vast plains and prairies: bushwood and herbage--the dry grass--the tall reed--the twining parasite--or the giant of the forest, charred and blackened, but still proudly erect--alike attest and bewail the conquering fire's onward march; and the bleak desert, silent, waste, and lifeless, which it leaves behind seems forever doomed to desolation: vain fear! the rain descends once more upon the dry and thirsty soil, and from that very hour which seemed the date of cureless ruin, Nature puts forth her wondrous power with increased effort, and again her green and flower-embroidered mantle decks the earth with a new beauty!
SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS.
The soil of the extensive plain over which we journeyed this day, was light and sandy in character, but the large amount of vegetable matter which it contains, and the effect of the late rains, which had penetrated some 24 or 30 inches into it, made us perhaps somewhat overvalue its real merits. This plain rose gradually before us until it reached an elevation of 180 feet above the level of the sea, and was covered with a long, thin grass, through which the startled kangaroo made off every now and then at a killing pace.
The face of the country was well but not too closely covered with specimens of the red and white gum, and paperbark tree, and several others. The timber was but small, the diameter of the largest, a red gum, 18 inches.
Ever and anon the sparkling brilliant lizards darted down from their resting places among the boughs, so rapid in their fearful escape, that they caught the eye more like a flash of momentary light, than living, moving forms. We flushed in the course of the day a white bird, or at least nearly so, with a black ring round the neck, and a bill crooked like the ibis, which bird indeed, except in colour, it more resembles than any I have ever seen.*
(*Footnote. Since ascertained to be an Ibis--the Threskiornis strictipennis.)
Among the trees seen in the course of this ramble, I had almost forgotten to mention one which struck me more than any other from its resemblance to a kind of cotton tree, used by the natives of the South Sea islands in building their canoes.
February 7.
The day following we secured several boat-loads of rainwater, deposited in the holes of the rocks, near our temporary observatory, and were the better pleased with our success, as our well-digging had proved unsuccessful.
GEOLOGY OF THE CLIFFS.
There was something particularly striking in the geological formation of the cliffs that form the western side of this bay: and which rise from 70 to 90 feet in height, their bases apparently resting amid huge and irregular masses of the same white sandstone as that which forms the cliffs themselves, and from which this massive debris, strewn in all conceivable irregularity and confusion around, appears to have been violently separated by some great internal convulsion.
Some of these great masses, both of the living cliff and ruined blocks beneath, are strangely pierced with a vein or tube of vitreous matter, not less in some instances than 18 inches in diameter. In every place the spot at which this tube entered the rock was indicated by a considerable extent of glazed or smelted surface; but I am not sufficiently versed in the science of geology to offer any specific theory to account for the appearances I have described: the cliffs were rent and cracked in a thousand different ways, and taking into consideration their strange and wrecked appearance, together with the fact that lightning is known to vitrify sand, may we not thus get a clue to the real agency by which these results have been produced?*
(*Footnote. Since this was written, I have consulted my friend, Mr. Darwin, who has kindly examined a specimen I brought away. He pronounces it "a superficial highly ferrugineous sandstone, with concretionary veins and aggregations." The reader should, however, consult Mr. Darwin's work on the Geology of Volcanic Islands page 143.)
WEIGH AND GRAZE ON A ROCK.
February 10.
The weather was thick and gloomy, and it rained fast; but, having completed our survey and observations, and the wind being favourable, it was resolved to get underweigh without further loss of time.
In the very act of weighing, the ship's keel grazed a sunken rock, of the existence of which, though we had sounded the bay, we had been, till that moment, in ignorance! He only who has felt the almost animated shudder that runs through the seemingly doomed ship at that fearful moment, can understand with what gratitude we hailed our escape from the treacherous foe.
In passing out, we named two low small rocky islands, lying north of Point Swan, and hitherto unhonoured with any particular denomination, the Twins. It should be noted, that the tide did not begin to make to the southward till 8 hours 15 minutes A.M., being full half an hour after low-water by the shore. We passed through several tide races; not, however, feeling their full force, owing to our encountering them at the time of slack water. In every case our soundings indicated great irregularity of bottom, the cause to which I have already assigned these impediments to in-shore navigation.
SUNDAY STRAIT.
We found a temporary anchorage the same morning, on the east side of the large group forming the eastern side of Sunday Strait; so named by Captain King, who was drifted in and out of it on that day, August 19th, 1821, amid an accumulation of perils that will long render the first navigation of this dangerous Archipelago a memorable event in the annals of nautical