e people had a novel safeguard against the attacks of the natives: a
horrible looking figure, dressed so as to represent the evil spirit, of
which the Australian aborigines are so much afraid, was placed in a
conspicuous place; but whether it would have had the desired effect was
not proved, as the natives had never been seen in those parts. There can,
indeed, be little to tempt them to wander thither; for there are neither
kangaroos nor wallabies, and but few birds. Among the most curious of
those belonging to the land, is a kind of finch, with a black head,
yellow beak, a dark brown back, and dirty white belly; across the wings
and arching over the back, at the stump of the tail, was a stripe of
white.

(*Footnote. Our observations made this spot in latitude 39 degrees 02
minutes 30 seconds South, and longitude 4 degrees 44 minutes 45 seconds
West of Sydney. High-water on the full and change of the moon, takes
place at 12 hours 5 minutes when the tide rises eight feet; a mile in the
offing the northern and ebb stream, which runs from one to two knots,
begins at 11 hours 40 minutes. Past the south end of the promontory the
same stream sweeps round from the westward, sometimes at the rate of two
knots and a half.)

WATERLOO BAY.

Cape Wellington, the eastern projection of the Promontory, forms the
north point of Waterloo Bay, which is wide and spacious. These names were
suggested by the fact that the day of our anchoring there was the
anniversary of one of the greatest triumphs ever achieved by British
arms. At the head of the bay, lies the low valley, three miles in length,
which stretches across the promontory and forms a very conspicuous break
in the high land. On the northern side of it, the highest hill, Mount
Wilson, rises abruptly until its woody crest reaches an elevation of 2350
feet. On the southern, was a ridge strewn over with immense boulders of
granite, one, near where I stood, measuring eighty feet in height, and
resting with such apparent insecurity, that little seemed required to
send it rolling and crashing into the valley below, along which a rivulet
winds, and falls into the sea at the north end of a sandy beach, forming
the head of Waterloo Bay. The depth in the middle of the latter is 12
fathoms, muddy bottom; it lies four miles from the south end of the
Promontory, and there is no good anchorage between.

SAIL FOR PORT DALRYMPLE.

From a small flattened sugarloaf, forming the summit of Cape W