d of a very hard and coarse grey
limestone, and under this a narrow belt of a whitish or cream-coloured
substance, lying in horizontal strata; but what this was we could not yet
determine, being unable to get down to it any where. The cliffs were
frightfully undermined in many places, enormous masses lay dissevered
from the main land by deep fissures, and appearing to require but a touch
to plunge them headlong into the abyss below. Back from the sea, the
country was level, tolerably open, and covered with salsolae, or low,
prickly shrubs, with here and there belts of the eucalyptus dumosa. In
places two or three miles back from the coast there was a great deal of
grass, that at a better season of the year would have been valuable; now
it was dry and sapless. No timber was visible any where, nor the
slightest rise of any kind. The whole of this level region, elevated as
it was above the sea, was completely coated over with small fresh water
spiral shells, of two different kinds.

After travelling about twenty-five miles along the cliffs, we came all at
once to innumerable pieces of beautiful flint, lying on the surface,
about two hundred yards inland. This was the place at which the natives
had told us they procured the flint; but how it attained so elevated a
position, or by what means it became scattered over the surface in such
great quantities in that particular place, could only be a matter of
conjecture. There was no change whatever in the character or appearance
of the country, or of the cliffs, and the latter were as steep and
impracticable as ever.

Five miles beyond the flint district we turned a little inland and halted
for the night upon a patch of withered grass. During the day we had been
fortunate enough to find a puddle of water in a hollow of the rock left
by yesterday's rain, at which we watered the horses, and then lading out
the remainder into our bucket carefully covered it up with a stone slab
until our return, as I well knew, if exposed to the sun and wind, there
would not be a drop left in a very few hours. Kangaroos had been seen in
great numbers during the day, but we had not been able to get a shot at
one. Our provisions were now nearly exhausted, and for some days we had
been upon very reduced allowances, so that it was not without some degree
of chagrin that we saw so many fine animals bounding unscathed around us.

January 11.--Having travelled fifteen miles further along the cliffs, I
fo