BY K. C. ANDREWS. 



159 



Hinchiiibrook Island consists of huge rock escarpments, sur- 

 mounted by aiguilles— a mountain range 20 miles in length, whose 



Fig. 5.— Sketch Section illustrating interesting Coral Growths at 

 Juno Bay, Fantome Island. 



1. Flat growing coral tables, from 6 to 10 feet in diameter, 10 feet below 

 H.W.M. 2. Rockshelters under coral tables. 3. Sand lanes. 

 Height of pillars about 30 feet. 



axis is approximately parallel to the neighbouring mainland coast. 

 Immense mangrove flats, miles in width, fringe its western edge, 

 and from these rise precipitously the great granite peaks known 

 as Straloch, Diamantina, Pitt and Bowen, the latter being nearly 

 4,000 feet in height. The southern portion contains many barren 

 peaks, and exhibits the granite type of weathering. The northern 

 end of the island is devoid of the rugged peaks of the south, and 

 is composed principally of a dark quartz porphyry. 



A long narrow channel (in places nine fathoms deep) separates 

 the island and the mainland. If, as seems undoubtedly the case 

 to me, the Hinchinbrook flats argue recent elevation, then this 

 channel must previously ha^■e been much wider, yet of the nature 

 of a shoal at low tides over which no heavy waves could beat, the 

 present channel having been determined by subaerial denudation 

 ante-dating the period of subsidence. Consequent drainage is a 



