20 Whale's Head and South Cape. 



It seems but little out of place to record en passant the 

 danger to boats proceeding, even in moderate weather, in 

 the close vicinity of the last-named rocks. The pilots 

 and other experienced persons say, that the sea, after 

 remaining still and smooth some minutes, will often rise 

 in a sudden tumultuous wave, overwhelming every thing 

 in its way. By an unexpected surge of this description, 

 a boat, with constables and crew, from Southport was 

 instantaneously swamped near the Black Reef a few 

 years ago. 



At the southern extremity of the south portion of 

 Recherche Bay is Cockle Creek, which, from being 

 extremely narrow at the entrance, expands immediately 

 behind a line of low sand-hills into shallow flats, with 

 green rushy borders. 



These flats are succeeded about a mile to the westward 

 by extensive levels of low marshy ground, closely covered 

 with a sward of Junccce, Cyperacece, and a sprinkling of 

 coarse grasses. 



This valley trends first to the southward, and then, as it 

 expands, it stretches to the north of west. It is bounded 

 to the north by greenstone hills, rising into the high land 

 of the interior ; and on the opposite side by the elevated 

 ground forming the Whale's Head. 



The western termination of the valley, sparsely tim- 

 bered with Banksia, stunted Eucalypti, and shrubby Myr- 

 tacecs, consists of a series of sandy and ferny ridges, with 

 narrow intervening flats and small lagoons, which, a 

 little more to the north, end in a countless succession of 

 tiny rills running in deep channels, every where shaded 

 by dense but not heavy forests of the gum, myrtle, and 

 sassafras trees, intermingled with Melaleuca, the elegant 

 Anopterus, and straggling Cenarrhenes, and their almost 

 invariable and rich accompaniment, the arborescent 

 ferns. 



