4 



180 BOTANY OF KING GEORGE's SOUND. 



cliffs. Here grass and water were abundant, and the rock chiefly red 

 sandstone conglomerate, mixed with slate, and a variety of others, in 

 loose and promiscuous heaps. 



At this camp we seemed to have got quite above, or to the N.W., of 

 the main coal-seam of this river, which will in all probability be found 

 to crop out in its bed between half and one and a half mile, in a direct 

 line above our bivouac of 20th December, from which East Mount Bar- 

 ren bore S. 28° 45' W., and the north end of Eyre Eauge W. i S, I 

 should even now have proceeded on foot for its further examination, 

 but Bob assured me it was not the spot in which his friends had told 

 him coal was to be found, and to which he was very desirous we should 

 proceed without delay, 



I have been thus particular in describing my passage across this coal 

 field, in order that others who may hereafter follow up the discovery 

 may be fully aware of what has been left incomplete. That coal exists 

 in the locality pointed out, there cannot remain the slightest doubt ; for 

 although the later specimens were so unfortunately lost, sufficient were 

 seen and brought away from the neighbourhood to place all doubts 

 aside, and I have little fear but this valuable mineral will be found in 

 considerable quantity where I have stated. Its locality is favourable, 

 at eight or nine miles from the sea-coast, and perhaps five or six only 

 from the head of an estuary, which was seen at a distance to receive 

 the river on the eastern side of East Mount Barren. This estuary 

 (which was named Culbam Inlet, and its river the Phillips) is probably 

 navigable for boats for a few miles, but, like all the inlets on the coast, 

 is doubtless shut up by a dry sand-bar at its mouth, except during a 

 small portion of the rainy season. This bar, and the anchorage off it, 

 wo\ild be only fifty miles from the southern part of Doubtful Island Bay, 

 where steamers might coal in security from a depot. 



{To he continued^ 



Notes on the Botany of King George's Sound. 



[The following extracts of a letter from Dr. Harvey, dated King 

 George's Sound, January 29, 1854, will, we are sure, be read with 

 pleasure by those who peruse this Journal. — Ed.] 



I wrote to you from Ceylon in November, enclosing specimens and 



