PHYSICAL STRrCTURE. 



107 



lug point being opposite the south- west roadstead entrance. The head or 

 deepest portion of the bay washes the shore of Mosley's F\a,t. A further 

 description of the Lagoon and its enclosing reef will be found 'n the previous 

 Zoological Eeport. 



Ked's, Middle, and Blenkinthorpc Bays each have fine expanses of sandy 

 beach, backed at the first by low sand hummocks, and at the last by incipient 

 dunes ; but neither of these is to be compared to the fine stretch of sand 

 extending for one and a quarter miles along the Lagoon, from Thompson's 

 ■Point to the southern boundary of Mosley's Flat. 



The creeks on Lord Howe Island are, strictly speaking, unimportant, and 

 such one would anticipate from the small area of the island, A short water- 

 course exists at the Old Settlement and receives the drainage of the gullies 

 traversing the amphitheatre of the east end of the North Eidge. No other 

 Week is met with until the flat ground between Intermediate Hill iind Mount 

 Ledgbird is reached. Here occur the Deep Creek and its branch, the 

 soldier's Creek, which drain the extensive area formed by the flanks of 

 ■Intermediate Hill, the connecting ridge as high as the Smoking Tree, and 

 thence round the precipitous north-west side of Mount Lodgbird. A short 

 distance further south is the Fresh-water Pool, a rocky gorge cutting through 

 the Western terraces of that remarkable hill. The two former creelvs 

 have small sandbars at their mouths, and communicate with the Lagoon only 

 during freshets or at high tides. In each case, after leaving the higher 

 ground, their water-courses meander through small alluvial flats, formed by 

 the detrital matter brought down by them. Along the edges of the flat at 

 the Soldier's Creek, and up the course of the Deep Creek are to be found 

 many fine examples of the Pandanus {Pandanus Forsteri, Mosre). The 

 gullies in which these creeks terminate are invariably steep, assuming in 

 niany cases, especially in the southern part of the island, the aspect of minia- 

 ture mountain torrents. In all probability the deepest gully is Erskine 

 > alley, although some of those on the north-east flanks of Mount Ledgbird 

 are not by any means to be thought lightly of. On the other hand, one of 

 the most beautiful and impressive ravines is the Valley of the Shadow of 

 4^eath, already referred to in the Zoological Eeport, running up from Middle 

 -oeaoh, past the Observatory Point, and draining the plateau of Mount Look- 

 out. Doubtless during long continued rain many fine leaps of water are to 

 he observed on Mounts Ledgbird and Grower. In H. P. White's map is shown 

 a swamp in a portion of what is now known as Mosely's flat, but this did not 

 come under our notice. 



The vegetation of Lord Howe is, next to its general outline, its grandest 



leature.^ " It is," says Linnjeus, " peculiarly beautiful and striking, and to 



^eat it in any exhaustive way, would require a special artist devoted to it."* 



.'^J'-PProaching from seaward, especially on the western side, its heavily 



c otbed state is not in the least apparent, the view showing " how deceptive 



ne appearance of foliage may be where there are no great irregularities in 



ue growth of the trees, for when looked down upon, though of considerable 



wV' /^.°™ ^^^ evenness of the general surface they look dwarfed and stunted, 



^hich IS the case in looking at them from the sea also."t To this is due the 



^pparent rounding and non-precipitous outline of many of the eminences of 



le island, even including some portions of the rugged southern hills. The 



otany has to a great extent been already described by Mr. Charles Moore,J 



* "Linna3us," loc. cit., p. 24. 

 + Hill's Lord Howe Island, p. 

 t Ibid, p. 17. 



41. 



