1.S91.] 237 



"We remained hero until the 9th, during which time I had seme 

 very fair collecting, but as all the species then met with were taken on 

 the second (present) visit, I will not refer to them at present. On 

 the 11th we were again at Baudin Island, where we found the tide 

 party all I'ight, though the natives had paid them a visit, but not, I 

 think, with any hostile intention ; they appear to wander from Island 

 to Island on rude rafts or catamarans in search of turtle, &c. We 

 stayed here two days, during which time I got a good many Lepidoptera, 

 including the larvc^ of PapiJio Erithonius (which are now producing very 

 fine butterflies), but scarcely a beetle of any sort, though I had laid 

 down traps of dead shell fish, &c. CoJeoptera are miserably scarce on 

 this coast at the present (dry) season. Having relieved the tide 

 watching party and landed (to make room in the ship) a large quantity 

 of stores and provisions, we left for Port Darwan, where we arrived 

 on the evening of the 15th. 



The harbour of Port Darwin is one of the finest in Australia, or 

 indeed in the world, but the shores cannot be called at all picturesque, 

 being low and uniform in character, and covered with a dense growth 

 of mangroves (though the place is very healthy) ; they gradually rise 

 into a sort of level table land, covered with an open scrub, chiefly 

 composed of stunted bushes of two or three species of Eucalyptus, 

 with larger trees of the same kind scattered about ; in the gullies 

 there is a more tropical looking growth of bamboos, small fan palms, 

 a large (? Euphorbiaceous) tree, locally known as "milkwood," Pandani, 

 Zami(B, &c., but at present the soil is excessively dry, and the herbage 

 and grass, for the most part, burnt up by the sun. The town (Palmer- 

 ston), which is of some importance as the terminus of the overland 

 telegraph to Adelaide, as well as of the projected overland railway (of 

 which about 160 miles are complete), is built on a bluff overhanging 

 the harbour, and is well laid out and prosperous-looking, although 

 nearly all the houses are built of corrugated iron ; the inhabitants 

 number, I should say, about 2500, of whom at least four-fifths are 

 Chinese, who have the largest quarter of the town to themselves. 

 There is very little cultivation, except in some of the gullies, where 

 the Chinamen manage, by industrious irrigation, to keep some market 

 gardens going, and to produce a very fair supply of the usual tropical 

 fruits and vegetables. Natives abound in the bush skirting the town, 

 and very savage looking fellows some of them are, but they are 

 quite safe within a radius of at least thirty miles from here. 



My walks have not as yet extended for more than four or five 

 miles from the settlement (some of the very best places for collejting 



