VISIT THE SHORE. 373 



bearing S. by E. six miles, called Mount Blaze, in 

 lat. 20° 0' S. and long. 119° 40' E. This was found 

 to stand on a projection, with two small rocky islets 

 on either side. Eastward from it cliffy points sepa- 

 rating shoal mangrove bays, formed the character of 

 the coast ; whilst in the opposite direction extended 

 a bay, fifteen miles wide, over the western point of 

 which we recognised the sand hills seen on our 

 visit to this part in July, 1840; the shores of this 

 great bay were fronted for some distance by shoal 

 water. 



Behind Mount Blaze the country was swampy, 

 wdth mangroves, for a few miles ; it then gradually 

 rose, and on the bearing of S. 1° E., distant nearly 

 fifteen miles, were seen conical -sided flat-topped 

 hills about two hundred feet high. This was the 

 first remarkable elevation in the country we had seen 

 during the two hundred miles of the coast line traced 

 by the Beagle; it appears to be the N. E. termination 

 of the high land seen southward from the Turtle Isles. 



Some small burrowing animal had so excavated 

 • the ground in the vicinity of Mount Blaze, that at 

 each step we sunk in knee deep ; a few quails were 

 shot, but no varieties of birds were seen beyond what 

 had been already observed at the other points of the 

 coast visited. 



Weisfhinor, we stood to the westward, after 

 making a short stretch to the north-east ; but shoal 

 water, at the end of six miles, obliged us to go on 

 the other tack. The change in the direction of the 



