800 ARRIVE AT CAPE YORK. 



large shell or two attached to it. Most of the huts 

 were situated in small enclosures, and there were 

 other portions of ground fenced in with tall hamboo 

 pahng'. 



On the following day the Bramble* left us for 

 Booby Island, to call at the ^^post-office" there, 

 and rejoin company at Cape York, and we reached 

 as far as the neighbourhood of Cocoa-nut Island at 

 noon, passing close to Arden Island, then covered 

 with prodigious numbers of blue and white herons, 

 small terns, curlews, and other waders. 



Oct. 1st. — We had a fine breeze and pleasant 

 weather, and in the afternoon reached our former 

 anchorage in Evans' Bay, Cape York, and moored 

 ship in seven fathoms. A party was immediately 

 sent to examine the water-holes, which promised, 

 after a little clearing out, as abundant a supply as 

 they afforded us last year. We met some of the 

 natives who came down to the rocks as the boat 

 landed, and among them I saw many old acquaint- 

 ances who joyfully greeted us. 



* On his return, Lieut. Yule reported that the boats of an 

 American whaler, lost on the Alert Reef (outside the Barrier), 

 had reached Booby Island, and the crews had been saved from 

 starvation by the depot of provisions there. That this supply 

 will be renewed from time to time is most likely, as the Legislative 

 Council of New South Wales, last year, voted the sum of j650 

 for provisions to be left on Booby Island for the use of ship- 

 wrecked people. 



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