w and white everlasting flowers of small growth: a
little patch of woodland, consisting of a species of wattle and a very
small kind of gum, here delayed our progress. The ground beneath these
trees was entirely barren of vegetation; but emerging from them, we came
upon the only piece of grass of a useful nature seen in the route; it
was, however, quite parched, and occupied a space only of three or four
acres. From thence to the coast dunes, to reach which we made a detour to
the South-West walking over about six miles of country, all was scrub and
sand. On the low ridge, lying immediately behind the coast range of
sandhills, limestone occasionally cropped out. Embarking, we proceeded in
a boat to examine a small estuary, seen from Mount Fairfax, at the
northern part of the bay. This we found to be separated from the sea by a
low bank of sand, thirty feet wide and five high, over which the sea
appeared in gales to enter; but from the manner in which the sandhills
overlapped at the mouth, it was not possible to detect the entrance from
seawards. We landed and traced it for a mile in an east direction, until
we proved it to be the mouth of the Greenough; the water was entirely
salt, and the banks, in some places seventy feet high, were composed of
limestone. Near the head of this estuary we discovered the place where
Captain Grey crossed it, as described in the following extract from his
notes communicated to Lord John Russell, then Secretary for the Colonies.

CHARACTER OF COUNTRY.

"The character of the country again changed, and for the next two miles
and a half the plains were sandy, and covered with scrub. At the end of
another mile we reached a river, about twenty-five yards wide; it was
salt where we made it, and it was so shallow, that we soon found a place
where, by jumping from rock to rock, we could cross it. This river
discharged itself into a bay;* it ran rather from the South of East.
[East of South?] Four miles further, South by East, were sandy plains,
with scrub, etc."

(*Footnote. This was doubtless Champion Bay; but in our examination of
the coast, we did not see anything of the bay or harbour which Captain
Grey speaks of in his work (volume 2 page 35) about nine miles north of
the Greenough, and which he supposed to be Champion Bay, "since
denominated," he says, "Port Grey." According to the true latitude of
Champion Bay, the bay in question would be in about 28 degrees 38 minutes
South or nearly tw