432 KING GEORGE'S SOUND. [CHAP. xix. 



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 brush- 

 wood 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 ; the 

 place mentioned by so many navigators, 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 became 

 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, hap- 

 pened 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 com- 

 menced 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 ; 



