408 DISCOVERY OF ADELAIDE RIVER. 



the scenery, which otherwise exhibits a most mono- 

 tonous sameness. 



A coarse kind of ironstone gravel was, (if I may 

 use the term) scattered over the face of the coun- 

 try ; some of it had a glazed appearance on the 

 surface, being hollow within, and about the size of 

 a musket ball. Properly speaking they are com- 

 posed of a ferruginous sandstone, but they have 

 been already more fully alluded to when first met 

 with at Point Cunningham, near King's Sound, on 

 the N.W. coast. The general formation is the 

 same as at Cape Hotham, itself almost identical 

 with the rocks at Port Essington. A few traces of 

 small kangaroos were seen ; but not a bird or any 

 other living thing two miles from the beach. This 

 peculiarity the reader will remember was also 

 noticed in the neio^hbourhood of King's Sound. 



On returning to the ship we found that Mr. 

 Fitzmaurice had arrived, bringing the expected, 

 and very gratifying intelligence, that a large river 

 with two branches, running S.E. and S., with a 

 depth of four fathoms, emptied itself into the head 

 of the bay. The joy a discovery of this nature 

 imparts to the explorer, when examining a country 

 so proverbially destitute of rivers as Australia, is 

 much more easily imagined than described. It 

 formed a species of oasis amid the ordinary routine 

 of surveying, rousing our energies, and giving uni- 

 versal delight. The castle builders were imme- 

 diately at work, with expectations beyond the pale 



