THE AUSTRALIAN GREAT BARRIER REEF. 109 



Mr. Jukes landed, is thus given in his " Journal " : " Feb. 4, 5, 6. — Running along and 

 delineating the eastern edge of this large body of reefs, sometimes standing out into the offing 

 to sound, and taking care on the approach of night to run into some of the openings, and 

 anchor in a sheltered position among them. These reefs consist of a compact body of coral- 

 masses, intersected by narrow channels of deep water ; each mass varies in extent from one to 

 several miles, some of them being almost dry at low water, others having lagoons or hollows of 

 greater or less depth. A very common feature among them is a line of great detached blocks 

 lying a little back from the outer edge of the reef, frequently not altogether covered even at high 

 tide, and always quite exposed at low water. I landed on one reef from our anchorage on the 

 evening of the 5th. We carried blue water from the ship for about half a mile, and then began 

 to see the bottom in about seven fathoms, from which it shoaled gradually, but rapidly, till the 

 boat touched the top of the coral branches. Scraping on, however, over these, and winding 

 among the more solid masses of Moeandrina and Astrasa, we reached some of the large dry 

 blocks on the seaward edge of the reef. I found some of them to be huge masses of Mcean- 

 drina, six or eight feet in diameter, much waterworn and lying upside down, having been 

 torn by some heavy sea from their place of growth on the weather edge of the reef, and 

 washed two or three hundred yards back from it. Others were a species of massive Porites, 

 while others again consisted of various corals, all matted and compacted together." 



On the trend of the coast-line in a north-westerly direction, a considerable archipelago 

 of islands, which present a distinct character from the reefs and islets hitherto enumerated, is 

 encountered. The latter islets have been entirely of coral origin. We now, however, meet with 

 a linear series of island-groups, which stretch for nearly two hundred miles, and are composed of 

 igneous or metamorphic rocks, identical in character with those of which the foundations of the 

 mainland are composed. The Percy, the Northumberland, the Cumberland, and the Whitsunday 

 Islands represent these several groups in their consecutive order of occurrence, voyaging up the 

 coast. Thej' all lie within comparatively short distances, varying from ten to fifty miles, from the 

 mainland shore, and in some instances rise to a considerable height. In the Cumberland and 

 the Whitsunday groups more particularly, there are mountain peaks, such as those of Scawfell, 

 St. Bees, Carlisle, and Hook Islands, whose heights exceed 1,000 feet. In these two more 

 northern groups the irregular rocky cliffs and hillsides are, for the most part, covered with a 

 dense growth of a handsome species of pine, Araucaria, which, when viewed from the 

 steamer's deck, communicates a very picturesque, almost Scandinavian, facies to the associated 

 landscapes. A nearer approach, however, eradicates this first impression, by revealing the ad- 

 mixture among the pines of palms, pandani, and many other plants of a tropical character. The 

 ordinary steamer track through the Whitsunday Passage is justly regarded as one of the most 

 picturesque bits of scenery on the Australian coast-line. Among other points of interest to 

 which the traveller's attention will probably be directed is the remarkable aspect of Lion, or 



