56 GLADSTONE SETTLEMENT. 



even in npparently uninhabited places; and such 

 watchfuhiess soon becomes habitual^ and at length 

 ceases to be irksome. Next day we returned to the 

 ship^ more than ever convinced of the comparative 

 uselessness of the country which we had g'one over 

 for ag'ricultural or even jiastoral purposes^ except on 

 a very small scale. On our way back we met with 

 two horses^ both in g'ood condition^ which had been 

 left by Colonel Barney's pnrty. 



On another occasion Mr. Huxley and myself 

 landed at the site of the settlement of Gladstone^ 

 and were picked up in the evening* by Capt. Stanley 

 in one of the surveying' boats^ on his return to the 

 ship. It is difficult to conceive a more dreary spot^ 

 and yet I saw no more elig'ible place for a settle- 

 ment on the shores of the harbour. A few piles of 

 bricks^ the sites of the tents^ some posts^ indicating* 

 the remains of a provisional ^' Government-house/' 

 wheel-ruts in the hardened clay^ the stumj)s of felled 

 trees^ together ^^ith a g'oodly store of empt}' bottles 

 strewed about everywhere^ remained as characteris- 

 tics of the first stag*e of Australian colonization. 

 Within 200 }'ards of the township we came upon a 

 g'reat expanse of several hundred acres of bare mud^ 

 g-listening* with crystals of salt^ bordered on one side 

 by a deep mudd}^ creek^ and separated from the 

 shore by thickets of mangToves. The country for 

 several miles around is barren in the extreme^ con- 

 sisting* for the most part of undulating*^ stony^ forest 

 land. I have heard^ however^ that there is much 



