APPEARANCE OF NORTH-WEST COAST. 369 



passed From that headland commenced a low, 

 wearisome, sandy shore, which we traced for sixty- 

 five miles in a S. W. by W. direction, looking in 

 vain for some change in its character. Nothing 

 beyond the coast sand-dunes, sprinkled with vege- 

 tation, and only twenty feet high, could be seen 

 from the mast-head, although the ship was within 

 three miles of the beach. This cheerless aspect was 

 heightened by the total absence of native fires, a 

 fact we had never before observed in such an extent 

 of country, and truly significant of its want of fer- 

 tility. Still, in our sight it possessed a greater 

 charm than it may, probably, in that of others ; as 

 every fresh mile of coast that disclosed itself, re- 

 warding our enterprise whilst it disappointed our 

 expectations, was so much added to the domains of 

 geography. That such an extent of the Australian 

 continent should have been left to be added to the 

 portion of the globe discovered by the Beagle was 

 remarkable ; and although day by day our hopes of 

 accomplishing any important discovery declined, 

 a certain degree of excitement was kept alive 

 throughout. 



It was the 13th before we had made good the 

 distance I have above mentioned, when a reddish 

 hillock, of fifty-six feet in elevation, in lat. 19° 48' S., 

 and long. 120" 36' E., promising a view of the in- 

 terior, we went to visit it. There was less surf on 

 the beach than we expected, and we landed without 

 much difficultv. Our old friend, the black and 



VOL, II. 2 B 



