CLIFFS NEAR DOVER POINT 123 



My crew consisting of so few hands, only two in fact 

 capable of working the boat, we could not keep an 

 efficient watch at night, and always anchored during the 

 hours of darkness. We found good holding ground in 

 from four to twenty fathoms at varying distances from 

 the shore — the greatest being about two miles, and though 

 on a few occasions there was wind enough to cause a 

 long rolling swell, we never dragged our anchor, or seemed 

 to be in any great danger — the occasion already referred 

 to excepted. 



At no part of the coast did we find any material 

 change in the characteristics of the back-country. The 

 range of hills which had first been sighted by us from 

 the back of Dover Point (as I suppose) was visited, and 

 found to be a barren terrace of cliffs some two thousand 

 feet high. At the top of them was a stratified line 

 looking like an artificial wall. They were almost bare 

 of herbage, but there was a dense scrub on the plains 

 which surrounded them, and this scrub was full of 

 wallaby, and six emus were seen in the distance. We 

 tried to approach them, but they were wary and 

 moved away long before we could get within gun-range 

 of them. 



At this part of the coast the cliffs gradually diminish 

 in height, are easy of access, and broken at frequent 

 intervals. A landing can be effected almost anywhere, 

 but there is no water and but few trees. Parrots and 

 other birds were seen, and there is considerably more 

 animal life here than on any other part of this coast 

 which we visited, yet the land is a desert The soil is 

 poor, and I am not sure that irrigation would materially 

 improve it. Where there is mallee-scrub good ground 

 may be confidently hoped for. Therefore it is probable 

 that it is only the lack of water that renders the land 

 above the cliffs at the head of the Bight so sterile, but 

 we saw no mallee-scrub westward of Dover Point. The 

 herbage near the cliff-range (which may be that marked 

 Russell range on the maps) consists of low thorny bushes 

 and dwarfed plants of many different kinds, amongst 



