60 MOSSY TO NEW LIMESTONE POINT. 



wishes, we separated, both for the sea, though 

 in directions very different. The evening was 

 calm and clear, and, if the strength of the men 

 had been equal to my impatience, we should 

 have passed the night on the water ; but they 

 had been nearly eighteen hours labouring at the 

 paddles, and I could not refuse them a little 

 rest : at 8 h 40 m p.m., therefore, we encamped 

 on the beach, and were instantly beset by swarms 

 of mosquitoes. 



The appearance of the cliffs or steep banks, from 

 Mossy to New Limestone Point, is somewhat re- 

 markable : they are composed of clay, with a su- 

 perstratum of vegetable substances about six feet 

 thick; the layers of which appear to be horizon- 

 tally foliated, like the leaves of an outspread book. 

 In colour they vary from a blackish brown to a 

 light ochre, and they rest entirely on a substratum 

 of calcareous sand, with small fragments of water- 

 worn limestone, on which the lake is constantly 

 encroaching, as may be distinctly seen by the 

 numberless broken stems of trees, whose roots 

 are yet green in the soil. 



We started at three o'clock on the following 

 morning, and were soon relieved from the fatigue 

 of the paddle by a favourable light breeze. To go 

 on shore and trim a mast was the work of ten 

 minutes ; but as, according to the old adage, "it 

 never rains but it pours," so our light breeze was 



