Clack Island. 19 1 



among the familiar screw-pines, we saw a few fan palms, the first 

 met with on our northern voyage. 



Groping among the rocks of the foreshore, I encountered a 

 multitude of crabs of the gcncvd. For cellana and Gnrpsits, and 

 caught after much trouble a large and uncommonly fierce speci- 

 men of the Parainpclia saxicola. On anchoring, the dredge had 

 been lowered from the ship, and when hauled up after the ship 

 had swung somewhat with the tide, a curious species of Spatangus, 

 a Leiicosia, and a somewhat mutilated Phlyxia, were obtained. 



Early on the following morning I accompanied Captain Maclear 

 and Mr. Haswell on a boat trip to Clack Island (five miles from 

 our anchorage). We were anxious to sec and examine some 

 drawings by the Australian aborigines, which were discovered in 

 the year 1821 by Mr. Cunningham, of the Beagle, (see "King's 

 Australia," vol. ii., p. 25), and since probably unvisited. After 

 about an hour's sailing we reached the island — a bold mass of 

 dark rock resembling in shape a gunner's quoin ; but we now 

 found it no easy matter to find a landing-place. On the south- 

 east extremity was a precipitous rocky bluff about eighty feet in 

 height, against whose base the sea broke heavily, while the rest of 

 the island- — low and fringed with mangroves — was fenced in by 

 a broad zone of shallow water, strewn with boulders and coral 

 knolls, over which the sea rose and fell in a manner dangerous to 

 the integrity of the boat. After many trials and much risk to the 

 boat, we at length succeeded in jumping ashore near the south- 

 east or weather extremity of the island. Here we found abundant 

 traces of its having been frequently visited by natives, but it 

 did not appear as if they had been there during at least half- 

 a-dozen years prior to the time of our visit. We saw the draw- 

 ings, as described by Cunningham, covering the sides and roofs of 

 galleries and grottoes, which seemed to have been excavated by 

 atmospheric influences in a black fissile shale. This shale, which 

 gave a banded appearance to the cliff, was disposed in strata of 

 about five feet \n thickness, and was interbedded with strata of 



