318 PROPOSED SETTLEMENT 



upwai'ds on each side to the flanking ridges which are 

 covered with dense scruh occasionally extending in 

 straggling patches down to the water, and forming 

 a kind of imperfect natural fence. The soil of these 

 meadows is rich sandy loam, affording great appa- 

 rent facilities for cultivation from their proximity 

 to what is probahly a never failing supply of fresh 

 water. Here, at the end of the dry season, and 

 before the periodical rains had fairly set in, we found 

 the stream at half way up to be about six feet in 

 average breadth, slowly running over a shallow, 

 gravelly, or earthy bed, with occasional pools from 

 two to four feet in depth. 



I have aUuded to this subject at greater length 

 than under ordinary circumstances I would have 

 done, in the belief that, should a settlement ever be 

 established at Cape York, the strip of good land 

 that runs along the upper part of Mew River may 

 hereafter be turned to good account. Several other 

 valleys watered by small and apparently permanent 

 streams were discovered by our shooting parties, 

 chiefly by Wilcox and the sergeant of marines ; these 

 were afterwards visited by me, and my opinion of 

 the productiveness of the country about Cape York 

 almost daily became more and more favourable the 

 further I extended my excursions. 



I need scarcely repeat the arguments which have 

 been adduced in favour of the expediency, I may 

 almost say necessity, of establishing a military post, 

 or small settlement of some kind, in the vicinity of 



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