The basis of the country in the vicinity of this river is evidently granitic; and, from the abrupt and primitive appearance of the land about Cape Tribulation and to the north of Weary Bay, there is every reason to suppose that granite is also the principal feature of those mountains; but the rocks that lie loosely scattered about the beaches and surface of the hills on the south side of the entrance are of quartzose substance; and this likewise is the character of the hills at the east end of the long northern beach, where the rocks are coated with a quartzose crust, that in its crumbled state forms a very unproductive soil. The hills on the south side of the port recede from the banks of the river and form an amphitheatre of low grassy land, and some tolerable soil upon the surface of which, in many parts, we found large blocks of granite heaped one upon another. Near the tent we found coal; but the presence of this mineral in a primitive country, at an immense distance from any part where a coal formation is known to exist, would puzzle the geologist, were I not to explain all I know upon the subject. Upon referring to the late Sir Joseph Banks's copy of the Endeavour's log (in the possession of my friend Mr. Brown) I found the following remark, under date of 21st and 22nd June, 1770. "Employed getting our coals on shore." This is also confirmed in the account of the voyage;* and, when it is taken into consideration that we found it on no other part than the very spot that Captain Cook's coals must, from our local knowledge of the place, have been landed, the difficulty ceases; and there remains no doubt but that it is a relic of that navigator's voyage, which must have been lying undisturbed for nearly half a century. (*Footnote. Hawkesworth volume 3 page 155.) Among the varieties of seeds which were collected at this river were the following: Grevillea gibbosa; a species of leea; a cassia; a species of dalea, remarkable for its simple foliage; two species of melaleuca, one bearing a white, the other a crimson flower; an acacia; two species of the natural order convolvolaceae, namely, Ipomoea sp. and Ipomoea gracilis; and a species of the natural order leguminosae allied to galega; Erythrina indica or the coral-tree; several species of eucalyptus; a xanthorrhoea; and a great number of other curious plants which will appear whenever the catalogue of Mr. Cunningham's extensive botanical collection is published. July 11.