large estuary. A
few miles above the estuary the river separates into two branches, both
of which were running strong at the time we passed them.

Previously to our reaching the Hutt our boats had all been wrecked; I had
therefore no opportunity of examining whether the estuary of this river
was navigable or not; from its size however I should be inclined to the
affirmative. The other principal streams which drain this district are
the Buller, and the Murchison.

One remarkable feature in the province of Victoria is that the
carboniferous series is here developed throughout a tract of Western
Australia extending in latitude from the bottom of Geographe Bay to near
Cape Cuvier, and which I have carefully examined. The tract above alluded
to is the only one in which I have yet found the rocks belonging to this
series: this circumstance therefore imparts a very high degree of
interest to the district in question.

Within a few weeks after my return from the province of Victoria
applications from settlers were made to the Government of Western
Australia to permit them to occupy a district which had been so highly
spoken of; this application was however unsuccessful, but an expedition
was subsequently sent there to ascertain if there was a navigable
entrance to the Hutt River. In this object the expedition was
unsuccessful, but the vessel touched at the Abrolhos Islands and at some
parts of the adjacent coast, including Port Grey.*

(*Footnote. See above. [The coast to the eastward of the Abrolhos has
been since examined by H.M.'s surveying vessel the Beagle, Captain
Wickham, R.N., and while these sheets were passing through the press an
account of the survey of Port Grey, under the appellation of Champion
Bay, appeared in the Nautical Magazine for July 1841 page 443, from which
periodical it has been copied into Appendix B at the end of this volume.
ED.])

MR. MOORE'S JOURNAL. MR. MOORE'S VOYAGE TO HOUTMAN'S ABROLHOS AND PORT
GREY.

An account of some of the places visited was subsequently published in
the Perth Gazette, being contained in extracts from the journal of G.F.
Moore, Esquire, the Queen's Advocate at Perth, who sailed with the
expedition; and as Mr. Moore's description contains several points of
novelty and interest these extracts are again transcribed below.

EXPEDITION TO THE NORTHWARD.

After Captain Grey had the misfortune to have his boats wrecked in
Gantheaume Bay, having started thence with his