28 QUAIL ISLAND. 



a vivid recollection of the raft interview, which was 

 likely to dwell long in their minds ; at all events, if 

 not of the same party, they had heard of us, and it 

 will readily be believed, that we had been painted in 

 sufficiently terrible and exaggerated colours to 

 render a second interview, in their minds, very un- 

 desirable. Our discovering them in this place, 

 which we named Quail Island, from that bird being 

 found in great abundance, quite destroyed the hope 

 we had previously entertained of procuring turtle 

 there. It was the season for their incubation, and 

 at that time the island swarmed with them ; but our 

 sable friends had abundantly availed themselves of 

 this fact, as we saw the remains of several of their 

 turtle feasts. Although low, and composed entirely 

 of sand, we found a native well of excellent water 

 near the middle of the island, which, having been 

 enlarged, afforded an ample supply, a circumstance 

 that at once renders this a spot of importance and 

 value. Both on this and others of the group there 

 were a few small trees and a sprinkling of brush- 

 wood. 



We did not notice any of the singular detached 

 hills seen at Port Darwin, and the greatest elevation 

 any of the land in the neighbourhood attained was 

 200 feet ; neither did we observe any primary rocks. 



The observations were made at the S. E. point 

 of Quail Island, which by them is placed in lat. 12° 

 SOt'o' S., and long, V 42i' W. of Port Essington. 

 The almost insulated character of this part of the 



