332 RAISED BEACHES. 



Captain King, in answer to the above states, 

 that some of the islands within the reef have beaches 

 of broken coral ; and, as an instance, he refers to 

 Fitzroy island. 



I will, myself, here adduce what may be deemed 

 an important fact ; and which, if allowed its due 

 weight, will go far to weaken the arguments brought 

 forward in favour of the subsidence of the N.E. 

 coast of Australia. I found a flat nearly a quarter 

 of a mile broad, in a quiet sheltered cove, within the 

 cape, thickly strewed with dead coral and shells, 

 forming, in fact, a perfect bed of them — a raised 

 beach of twelve feet above high water mark. On 

 the sandy beach fronting it, also a few feet above 

 high water mark, was a concretion of sand and 

 dead coral, forming a mass about fifty yards long. 

 Fronting this, for about the width of one hundred 

 and fifty feet, was a wall of coral with two feet 

 water on it ; and immediately outside, five fathoms, 

 with a fine sandy bottom, slightly sloping off. The 

 annexed woodcut will better explain what we have 

 here endeavoured to brinoc before the reader. 



This small coral-strewed flat where our observa- 

 tions were made, and the results of which are as 

 follows; lat. UJ" 4.2|' S. ; long. 15° 36J' E. of 

 Port Essington, is surrounded by an amphitheatre 

 of hills. Had it been on the seaward side of 

 the Cape, I might have been readier to imagine 

 that it could have been thrown up by the sea 

 in its ordinary action, or when suddenly dis- 

 turbed by an earthquake wave ; but as the contrary 



