s time, together with
the track of the Beagle's party, and that of Captain Grey's, laid down in
one of the charts accompanying this work.)

(**Footnote. Mr. Moore's description of the country near Champion Bay, is
as follows: "Judging by the eye at that distance, the entire space, as
far as we had any opportunity of seeing, after going a little way back
from the coast, on the slope to the hills, upon the hills, among the
hills, beyond the hills, and, in short, everywhere, as far as the eye
could discern, appeared a grassy country, thinly sprinkled with some low
trees or shrubs, perhaps acacias. If this be the case, and there be water
sufficient, of which there is no reason to doubt, this may certainly turn
out to be the finest district for sheep pasture that this colony can
possess." This testimony, one would have thought, was much too vague to
justify the expression of any decided opinion as to the capabilities of
the country. Mr. Moore judged entirely from a distant view with the naked
eye: he could not discern the nature of the trees, does not assert
positively that the land was grassy, is unable to speak with certainty as
to the existence of sufficient water, and ventures only to draw the
conditional conclusion that this district MAY turn out to be the finest
the colony can possess.

Mr. Bynoe, who accompanied me in my excursion over this part of the
continent, writes as follows respecting it: "There can be but one opinion
of the country in the vicinity of the supposed Port Grey, namely, that it
is comparatively sterile. All the soil passed over, during our two days'
journey, was of a sandy nature; and the gumtrees, particularly in the
open country, were stunted and gnarled. Isolated clumps, however, of a
taller, straighter, and smoother character, were met with in the dried
watercourses. Near Wizard Peak, the warran, or native yam seemed to grow
in great abundance, and to some considerable depth. There the soil could
be pretty well judged of; and the deeper the holes had been dug by the
natives to obtain the root, the more pure was the sand; it was only the
surface soil that held decayed vegetable matter. Twice during the trip,
near the bases of cliffs, I saw a few acres of alluvial deposit, two very
circumscribed beds, which were lost in the bottom of a watercourse,
sliding, as it were, gradually under the sand. Near Moresby's Range,
where the soil became freely mixed with ironstone and pebbles, the
vegetation wa