Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura SeaStokes, John Lort
History
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura Sea
Stokes, John Lort
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Natural history -- Australia
Mount Inspection being the highest land in the neighbourhood, became the
principal station of the survey. From it a glimpse was got of the
mainland, bearing South 17 degrees West about eighteen miles. The
north-eastern end of the island, also, could be seen, fronted with rocky
ledges extending three quarters of a mile off. This hill is a mass of
calcareous rock, similar to the high parts of Bountiful Island, with the
same honeycombed surface, as if it had been exposed to the action of the
sea. In other parts of the island there is a great quantity of ironstone;
and the cliffs on the eastern side are mixed with this and pipe-clay; on
the northern extreme are some lakes or swamps.
SOIL, ETC. OF BENTINCK ISLAND.
The soil is chiefly a mixture of sand and decomposed vegetable matter;
but it cannot boast of fertility. The wood on the island, which consisted
for the most part of gums, wattles, a few acacias, palms, and, near the
beach, a straggling casuarina or two, bespoke this by its stunted
appearance; but as cotton grows well at Port Essington, there can be
little doubt that it will thrive here. Several of the bustards spoken of
by Flinders, were noticed; but too wary to be killed. They were as large
as those seen in the neighbourhood of Port Phillip, but much browner. The
other birds, most common, will be found in an extract from the game book,
given in a future page. We saw no animals, except some large iguanas.
Investigator Road is sheltered to the northward by shoal water stretching
across between Sweers and Bentinck islands. The latter is slightly
elevated, and thickly wooded; it is large in comparison with its
neighbours, being about ten miles in extent either way. Its south side is
much indented, and the projections as well as the extreme of Fowler
Island, are lined with mangroves; they are fronted with coral ledges.
Near the south-east point, I noticed large patches of the ferruginous
sort of gravel, before alluded to in King's Sound.
On one occasion a party thought they heard a cooey--or cry peculiar to
the natives of Port Jackson--uttered by some of the aborigines in the
distance. It would have been exceedingly interesting to ascertain if this
actually was the case; as the sound generally emitted by the natives of
the northern coasts when they wish to communicate with each other afar
off, is the monotonous "oh! oh!"
MR. FORSYTH'S REPORT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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