102 TIDAL PHENOMENON. 



tensely vivid kind, were constantly roaring and 

 flashing over our heads ; and, with the stormy 

 echoes which the rolling deep around woke on these 

 unknown and inhospitable shores, completed a scene 

 that I shall never cease to remember, as I never 

 then beheld it without mingled emotions of appre- 

 hension and delight. The rain, however, certainly 

 befriended us in more ways than one : it cooled the 

 atmosphere, which would else have been insuffera- 

 bly hot, diminished for a time the number and viru- 

 lence of our winged tormentors, and recruited our 

 stock of fresh water ; for, though ultimately we were 

 not obliged to have recourse to it as a beverage, it 

 did exceedingly well for washing purposes. We had 

 also, during this time, one most successful haul 

 with the seine, which amply supplied us with fresh 

 fish for that and the two following days ; the greater 

 part were a kind of large mullet, the largest weighed 

 six pounds five ounces, and measured twenty-five 

 inches in length. On the same day we remarked, 

 owing to the N. W. wind, a singular phenomenon in 

 the tides here. From half ebb to high water the 

 stream wholly ceased, and the water being heaped 

 up in the bay by the force of the wind, fell only 

 sixteen, instead of twenty-four feet. 



Several sporting excursions were made during this 

 period, but with comparatively little succes?. It is 

 not a country naturally very abundant in game of 

 any kind, except kangaroos, which are numerous, 

 but so harassed by the natives as to be of course 



