1836.] A "CORIIOBERY." 443 



the place mentioned by so many navlg-ators, where some 

 imagined that they saw corals, and others that they saw 

 petrified trees, standing in the position in which they 

 had grown. According to our view, the beds have been 

 formed by the wind having heaped up fine sand, composed 

 of minute rounded particles of shells and corals, during 

 which process branches and roots of trees, together with 

 many land-shells, became enclosed. The whole then be- 

 came consolidated by the percolation of calcareous matter ; 

 and the cylindrical cavities left by the decaying of the wood 

 were thus also filled up with a hard pseudo-stalactitical 

 stone. The weather is now wearing away the softer parts, 

 and in consequence the hard casts of the roots and branches 

 of the trees project above the surface, and, in a singularly 

 deceptive manner, resemble the stumps of a dead thicket. 



A large tribe of natives, called the White Cockatoo men, 

 happened to pay the settlement a visit while we were there. 

 These men, as well as those of the tribe belonging to King 

 George's Sound, being tempted by the offer of some tubs 

 of rice and sugar, were persuaded to hold a '* corrobery," 

 or great dancing-party. As soon as it grew dark, small 

 fires were lighted, and the men commenced their toilet, 

 which consisted in painting themselves white in spots and 

 lines. As soon as all was ready, large fires were kept 

 blazing, round which the women and children were collected 

 as spectators ; the Cockatoo and King George's men 

 formed two distinct parties, and generally danced in answer 

 to each other. The dancing consisted in their running 

 either sideways or in Indian file into an open space, and 

 stamping the ground with great force as they marched 

 together. Their heavy footsteps were accompanied by a 

 kind of grunt, by beating their clubs and spears together, 

 and by various other gesticulations, such as extending 

 their arms and wriggling their bodies. It was a most 

 rude, barbarous scene, and, to our ideas, without any sort 

 of meaning ; but we observed that the black women and 

 children watched it with the greatest pleasure. Perhaps 

 these dances originally represented actions, such as wars 

 and victories. There was one called the Emu dance, in 

 which each man extended his arm in a bent manner, like 

 the neck of that bird. In another dance, one man imitated 

 tiie movements of a Icangaroo grazing in the woods, whilst 

 a second crawled up, and prelendtd to spear him. When 

 both tribes mingled in the dance, the ground trembled with 



