DREARY COUNTRY. 101 



probably it took a more southerly course before 

 reaching Timor.* 



I passed the night on shore, making observations 

 for latitude, and in the hope also of being able to 

 obtain another specimen of the new small kangaroo, 

 that being the time when it is generally to be found 

 on the move. But I did not succeed in this object ; 

 and failed also in my expectation of knocking over 

 one of a large kind seen in the interior. I left the 

 observation spot for this purpose with the first grey of 

 the morn, taking an E. N. E. direction for about four 

 miles. The country was most dreary ; vast ranges 

 strewn over with huge blocks of sandstone, rose 

 in desolate grandeur around ; chasms, ravines, 

 and thirsty stony valleys yawned on every side ; all 

 was broken, rugged, and arid, as if the curse of 

 sterility had fallen on the land ; in short, the con- 

 trast was complete between this desert place and 

 the country we had so lately traversed up the river. 

 I was able, accordingly, to procure nothing in the 

 shape of a fresh meal, save a few black cockatoos 

 and some of the pigeons of a dark brown colour, with 

 a white patch on the extremity of the wing, which 

 I have alluded to in the earlier part of the work re- 

 lating to King's Sound, as always inhabiting rocky 

 districts and making a whirring sound, like a 

 partridge, on the wing. 



* We were informed at Timor that hurricanes were never felt 

 there, but occur once in four or five years to the southward 

 of it. It may be added that a vessel lost her top-masts in 

 the Port Essington hurricane, near Sandal Wood Island, and 

 that to the southward of Java hurricanes occur frequently. 



