all at hand.

DEAL ISLAND.

The principal islands of Kent Group have been named Deal and Erith; they
occupy a square of four miles, and are separated by Murray Pass, a
channel half a mile wide. Conical granitic hills, in some cases clothed
to their very summits with an impervious scrub, are scattered over them.
On Deal, the eastern isle, there are charred stumps of a few large
eucalypti: but otherwise the trees are small, the largest being a few
casuarinas over the head of East Cove. The valleys on the north side are
rich; and in one leading from Garden Cove we found a quantity of fine
carrots, planted by some sealers; their seed had been carried by the wind
until the whole valley was filled with them; fresh water also is abundant
on that side of Deal Island; and as limestone crops out at the head of
East Cove, a small party of convicts might be kept here and
advantageously employed in erecting the lighthouse and cultivating the
soil. By holding out to them a slight reward, many of the islands in Bass
Strait might be brought under cultivation, and supply grain, potatoes,
etc., for the consumption of the prisoners in Tasmania. This plan of
dispersing the convicts would also be beneficial in producing a change
for the better in themselves; for whilst together they are certainly more
likely to brood mischief.

ERITH ISLAND.

Besides East Cove there are others on the north-east and south-east sides
of Deal Island; whilst on Erith there is only one called West Cove, in
the north part of Murray Pass; it is subject to violent gusts that do not
reach East Cove.

The formation of this group is a little singular, the calcareous
limestone on Deal occurring two hundred feet above the sea and between
granite; whilst on Erith vesicular lava was found. These islands are
connected with Flinders by a sand ridge, on which the depth is 28 and 30
fathoms; but the islets and rocks between would appear, from the evidence
of upheaval we have just cited, to be elevated portions of a submerged
piece of land about to disclose itself.*

(*Footnote. The observations on the tides at these islands make the time
of high-water on the full and change of the moon a quarter past eleven,
when it rises eight feet. The stream in Murray Pass, which runs from two
to five knots, changes to the northward twenty minutes after high-water.)

In a valley behind East Cove there was a stream of water, which strange
to say was quite salt and came from the midd