442 TREE FERNS. [chap. xix. 



noble forest. In some of the dampest ravines, tree-ferns 

 flourished in an extraordinary manner ; I saw one which 

 must have been at least twenty feet high to the base of the 

 fronds, and was in girth exactly six feet. The fronds, 

 forming the most elegant parasols, produced a gloomy 

 shade, like that of the first hour of night. The summit of 

 the mountain is broad and flat, and is composed of huge 

 angular masses of naked greenstone. Its elevation is 3100 

 feet above the level of the sea. The day was splendidly 

 clear, and we enjoyed a most extensive view ; to the north, 

 the country appeared a mass of wooded mountains, of about 

 the same height with that on which we were standing, and 

 with an equally tame outline : to the south the broken land 

 and water, forming many intricate bays, was mapped with 

 clearness before us. After staying some hours on the 

 summit, we found a better way to descend, but did not 

 reach the Beagle till eight o'clock, after a severe day's 

 work. 



February yth. — The Beagle sailed from Tasmania, and, 

 on the 6th of the ensuing month, reached King George's 

 Sound, situated close to the S.W. corner of Australia. We 

 stayed there eight days ; and we did not during our voyage 

 pass a more dull and uninteresting time. The country, 

 viewed from an eminence, appears a woody plain, with 

 here and there rounded and partly bare hills of granite 

 protruding. One day I went out with a party, in hopes 

 of seeing a kangaroo hunt, and walked over a good many 

 miles of country. Everywhere we found the soil sandy, 

 and very poor : it supported either a coarse vegetation of 

 thin, low brushwood and wiry grass, or a forest of stunted 

 trees. The scenery resembled that of the high sandstone 

 platform of the Blue Mountains ; the Casuarina (a tree 

 somewhat resembling a Scotch fir) is, however, here in 

 greater number, and the Eucalyptus in rather less. In the 

 open parts there were many grass-trees — a plant which, 

 in appearance, has some affinity with the palm ; but, 

 instead of being surmounted by a crown of noble fronds, it 

 can boast merely of a tuft of very coarse grass-like leaves. 

 The general bright green colour of the brushwood and 

 other plants, viewed from a distance, seemed to promise 

 fertility. A single walk, however, was enough to dispel 

 such an illusion ; and he who thinks with me will never 

 wish to walk again in so uninviting a country. 



One day I accompanied Captain Fitz Roy to Bald Head ; 



