KAINE ISLAND. 347 



the men were talking amongst themselves their faces showed 

 little expression. When a little excited they ran their voices up 

 into a sort of affected falsetto. 



Amongst the men on shore I noticed a shrugging of one 

 shoulder, the head being leant over towards the same side, 

 constantly used to express disinclination to accept proffered 

 barter, and a pouting of the lip, the under lip being much thrown 

 up, was used at the same time, or alone, to express the same 

 meaning. To signify " Farewell," the hand was held up, palm 

 outwards, and with the fingers extended. 



Rainc island, August 31st, 1814. — The ship passed Eaine 

 Island on the afternoon of August 30th, and anchoring about 

 five miles off, under the lee of a reef, returned and landed a 

 party on the island next day. A very full account of Eaine 

 Island is given by Jukes.* The island is at the entrance of the 

 most usually employed passage through the Great Barrier Eeef of 

 North Eastern Australia. It is about three-quarters of a mile 

 long, and composed of calcareous sand rock, closely similar to 

 that of Bermuda, excepting that it is remarkably evenly bedded. 



The strata dip towards the shores with a slight inclination. 

 I measured the dip on the north-east side of the island, near 

 the beacon, and found it 7°. I cannot say whether it is uniform 

 all round the island. Towards the centre the strata seemed to 

 be horizontal. Jukes observed a similar dipping of the strata in 

 Heron Island,! but does not mention it as occurring at Eaine 

 Island. This condition would arise from the island being formed 

 as a single low sand dune, in which consolidation subsequently 

 took place ; though why a series of smaller dunes and ridges 

 should not here have been formed, and hence a rock like that of 

 Bermuda, with contorted strata, have arisen, I do not see : per- 

 haps from the constancy of the direction of the winds, or from the 

 smallness of area, or the absence of adequately binding plants. 



The shore of Eaine Island was of glistening white calcareous 

 sand, made up of fragments of shells, corals, and Foraminifera, 

 Immediately above the beach line, where grass commenced and 

 with it the breeding-place of the terns, the colour of the sand 



* " The Voyage of the 'Fly,'" Vol. I, pp. 126 and 338. 



t Ibid., p. 7. 



