CHAPTER VI. 



POINT CUNNINGHAM TO FITZ-ROY RIVER. 



SURVEY THE COAST TO POINT CUNNINGHAM — MOVE THE 



SHIP— MUSaUITOS — SOUTHERN VIEW OF KING's SOUND 



SINGULAR VITREOUS FORMATION MOVE TO THE SOUTH 



OF POINT CUNNINGHAM — CAPTAIN KINg's LIMIT — TERMI- 

 NATION OF CLIFFY RANGE — DISASTER BAY — AN EXPLORING 



PARTY LEAVE IN THE BOATS — THE SHORE A FRESH 



WATER LAKE VALENTINE ISLAND NATIVE FIRE AND 



FOOD — A HEAVY SQUALL — THE WILD OAT — INDICATIONS 

 OF A RIVER — POINT TORMENT — GOUTY STEM TREE AND 



FRUIT — LIMITS OF ITS GROWTH ANOTHER SQUALL 



WATER NEARLY FRESH ALONGSIDE THE FITZ-ROY 



RIVER — TIDE BORE AND DANGEROUS POSITION OF THE 

 YAWL— ASCENT OF THE FITZ-ROY — APPEARANCE OF THE 

 ADJACENT LAND — RETURN ON FOOT — PERILOUS SITUATION 

 AND PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE — SURVEY THE WESTERN 



SHORE RETURN TO THE SHIP —SPORTING, QUAIL AND 



EMUS — NATIVES— SHIP MOVED TO POINT TORMENT. 



February 21, 1838. — We remained at this shel- 

 tered anchorage until the 21st, by which time the 

 coast, so far as Point Cunningham, had been carefully 

 examined. We found it everywhere indented with 

 deep bays, in each of which good anchorage was to 

 be found. The water's edge was in almost every 

 place fringed with the closely twining mangrove 

 trees, behind which the country gradually rose to 

 an average level of about 200 feet, being thickly 

 covered with the various sorts of Eucalypti, for 



