he bay, and found it
to be separated from the mainland by a very shoal channel, through which
our boat had some difficulty in passing; the island is small, and formed
of loose fragments of granite, over which the decomposed vegetable matter
had formed a soil, which, although shallow, was sufficient to nourish
some luxuriant grass (panicum) and a robust species of eucalyptus: among
these large flights of cockatoos and parroquets were hovering, but they
were very shy, and did not allow us to approach them: a small dove,
common to other parts of the coast, was killed. A native was seen walking
along a sandy beach behind the island, but proceeded without noticing our
boat, which was at that time passing.

June 18.

The following day the weather was so clear that, in the early part of the
morning, we distinctly saw the summit of the land at the back of Cape
Tribulation, bearing North 43 degrees West (magnetic); it must have been
fifty-five or sixty miles off; the fall of the land towards the extremity
of the cape was also seen, bearing North 35 degrees 50 minutes West
fifty-six miles.

In the afternoon I went on shore near the north extremity of the Cape, to
procure some bearings; after which we strolled about, and found a
temporary stream of water falling into the sea. In walking past a grove
of pandanus trees, which grew near the water, we disturbed a prodigious
quantity of bronze-winged butterflies, reminding us, in point of number,
of the Euploea hamata, at Cape Cleveland in 1819. It proved to be a
variety of the Urania orontes (Godart) of Amboyna and the other Indian
Islands. Mr. Cunningham took advantage of the Dick's boat going to the
bottom of the bay, to cut grass: near their landing-place he found some
natives' huts; some of which were of more substantial construction than
usual, and were thatched with palm leaves: inside of one he found a
fishing rod, and a line, five or six fathoms long, furnished with a hook
made from a shell, like the hooks of the South Sea Islanders: he also
found a small basket, made from the leaf of a palm-tree, lying near the
remains of their fireplaces, which were strewed with broken exuviae of
their shell-fish repasts.

A canoe twelve feet long, similar to the one described at Blomfield's
Rivulet (volume 1) was also seen; and, like it, was not more than nine
inches wide at the bilge. A small kangaroo was seen by Mr. Cunningham
feeding upon the grass, but fled the moment that it saw hi