CHAPTER XXI 



THE GREAT BARRIER REEF 



It will be remembered that the base from which I started 

 on my longest ramble in Queensland was Bowen, Port 

 Denison ; and Bowen was the base from which I started to 

 examine portions of the Great Barrier Reef. 



Bowen, a small town when I was last there, is a semi- 

 tropical looking place surrounded with hills — a sort of 

 dead-alive fourth-rate township. The valley under the 

 hills, in which most of the houses stand, is known col- 

 loquially as " sleepy hollow," and the name is expressive 

 of the characteristics of the inhabitants. Everybody in 

 Bowen speaks with a drawl, and walks as if suffering from 

 sore feet ; but it is true they have a warm climate to excuse 

 their habitual lassitude. It is hot at Bowen and all along 

 the coast to the northward, a beautiful, warm, clear, and 

 intensely blue sky prevailing almost without a break all 

 the year round. 



A peculiarity of the coast in this neighbourhood, and 

 for a long distance to the north, is the number of boulders 

 on the strand, on the hills, and on the grassy slopes which 

 often run down to the water's edge. These boulders are 

 clearly water-worn, are often of huge size, and are some- 

 times piled up in huge masses of fantastic shape. The 

 shore is sometimes covered with them, and they appear as 

 shoals far out at sea. Many of great size are found on hill- 

 tops, and smaller ones are scattered about all over the land 

 in wild confusion. In some cases they spoil the landscape, 

 giving it a ruined and untidy appearance ; in others, 

 especially where the masses are large or piled high up, 



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