396 KOOMBANAH BAY. 



from the estuary during the rainy season mate- 

 rially lessens the strain upon the cables of ships 

 caught there by a gale. The peculiarity in the 

 formation of this neighbourhood consists in some 

 basaltic columns on the coast close to Point Ca- 

 suarina. 



We devoted the 28th to making observations,* 

 &c. ; and I was surprised to find that this part of 

 the coast was laid down four miles too much to the 

 northward. 



Daylight, on the 29th, found us outside Koora- 

 banah Bay, running to the westward before a light 

 land breeze. From the ofiing, this part of the western 

 shore of the continent was much more prepossessing 

 than any we had before seen. The outline of the 

 Darling Range, here approaching within fourteen 

 miles of the sea, and broken only by Mount Leonard 

 and the gorge of the Harvey, was sharply pencilled 



* These observations were made on the beach, midway between 

 Point Casuarina and the mouth of the estuary, which spot they 

 place in lat. 33° 19' 10" S and long. 0" 7' 00" W. of Swan River. 

 From a sand hill, 190 feet high, bearing S. 1 1" W., six-tenths of a 

 mile from that spot, I found that the highest part of the Darling 

 Range, Mount William, bore N. 40° 6' E. thirty-three miles, and 

 was in height 1720 feet ; and that Mount Leonard, another ex- 

 crescence on this range bore S. 81° 44' E. distant thirteen miles 

 and seven-tenths, and was of an elevation of 1270 feet ; whilst the 

 summit of Cape Naturaliste bore S. 65° W. and the visible extreme 

 S. 66" 50' W. which confirmed the error I had before remarked 

 in the position assigned it in the chart, being four miles too far 

 north All the above bearings are true. The rise of the tide, and 

 the time of high water, are the same as at Swan River. 



