A DEPOT FOR STEAMEBS. 133 



the neig^hbourhood of the various points ; however, 

 it is completely sheltered from any wind which may 

 be experienced on this part of the coast. 



On several occasions I landed on Albany Island, 

 and walked over the place. It is three miles in 

 length, and one in greatest breadth, its outline irre- 

 gular from the number of bays and small rocky 

 headlands. On its western side the bays are small, 

 and the shores generally steep and rocky, with 

 sandy intervals, the banks being covered with 

 brush of the usual Australian intertropical cha- 

 racter. The rock here is either a stratum of iron- 

 stone in irregular masses and nodules cemented 

 together by a ferruginous base, or a very coarse 

 sandstone, almost a quartzose conglomerate, forming 

 cliffs, occasionally thirty feet or more in height. 

 The latter stone is suitable for rough building* pur- 

 poses, such as the construction of a pier, but is 

 much acted on by the weather. On the northern 

 and eastern sides the bays are large and generally 

 sandy, with the land sloping down towards them 

 from the low undulating hills, which compose the 

 rest of the island. These hills are either sandy or 

 covered with ironstone gravel* over red clay. They 



* A sample of this ironstone picked up from the surface has 

 fiimished materials for the following remarks, for which I am 

 indebted to the politeness of "Warrington W. Smyth, Esq., of the 

 Museum of Practical Geology. 



" On examining the specimens which you presented to our 

 Museum, I see that thev consist for the most part of the red or 



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