we
found an ebb-tide setting out of a bight, which trended deeply in to the
southward and appeared to be studded with rocky islands. This adverse
tide continued to run all the evening and prevented our reaching the
bottom; so that at sunset we dropped the anchor a few miles to the south
of Cape Voltaire.

To the westward of this position we counted twenty-three islands, the
northernmost of which were supposed to be the Montalivet Isles of Baudin.
The whole have an uninteresting and rocky appearance but are not
altogether destitute of vegetation: a greenish tinge upon the nearest
islet saved them from being condemned as absolutely sterile.

September 6.

The next morning a boat visited the outer north-easternmost islet, named
in the chart Water Island, which was found to be as rocky in reality as
it was in appearance. It is formed of a hard granular quartzose
sandstone, of a bluish-gray colour; the basis is disposed in horizontal
strata but the surface is covered with large amorphous rocks of the same
character that have evidently been detached and heaped together by some
convulsion of nature: over these a shallow soil is sprinkled, which
nourishes our old acquaintance spinifex, and a variety of plants of which
Mr. Cunningham collected more than twenty distinct known genera. The
exposed surfaces of the rocks are coloured by the oxide of iron, which is
so generally the case upon the northern and north-western coasts that the
name of Red Coast might with some degree of propriety be applied to a
great portion of this continent.

Mr. Hunter found a large quantity of bulbous-rooted plants; they proved
to be a liliaceous plant of the same species as those which we had before
found upon Sims' Island, the islands of Flinders' Group on the eastern
coast, and at Percy Island.

A meridional altitude of the sun was obtained on the north side of the
island; and before we embarked the boat's crew found fresh water enough
to fill our barica: this was so unusual a discovery that the island was
complimented with a name which will serve rather to record the fact than
to distinguish it as a place where so important an article of refreshment
may be procured with certainty. In the rainy season a large quantity may
always be obtained from cisterns, or holes, which were observed naturally
formed upon the surface of the rocks.

The marks of a turtle were noticed upon the beach; and near them was the
impression of a native's foot as well