450 KING GEORGE'S SOUND. CHAP. XIx. 
a plant which, in appearance, has some affinity with the palm; 
but, instead of being surmounted by a crown of noble fronds, it 
can boast merely of a tuft of very coarse grass-like leaves. The 
general bright green colour of the brushwood and other plants, 
viewed from a distance, seemed to promise fertility. A single 
walk, however, was enough to dispel such an illusion; and he 
who thinks with me will never wish to walk again in so unin- 
viting a country. 
One day I accompanied Captain Fitz Roy to Bald Head; the 
place mentioned by so many navigators, where some imagined 
that they saw corals, and others that they saw petrified trees, 
standing in the position in which they had grown. According 
to our view, the beds have been formed by the wind having 
heaped up fine sand, composed of minute rounded particles of 
shells and corals, during which process branches and roots of 
trees, together with many land-shells, became enclosed. The 
whole then became consolidated by the percolation of calcareous 
matter ; and the cylindrical cavities left by the decaying of the 
wood, were thus also filled up with a hard pseudo-stalactitical 
stone. The weather is now wearing away the softer parts, and 
in consequence the hard casts of the roots and branches of the 
trees project above the surface, and, in a singularly deceptive 
manner, resemble the stumps of a dead thicket. 
A large tribe of natives, called the White Cockatoo men, 
happened to pay the settlement a visit while we were there. 
These men, as well as those of the tribe belonging to King 
George’s Sound, being tempted by the offer of some tubs of rice 
and sugar, were persuaded to hold a “corrobery,” or great 
dancing-party. As soon as it grew dark, small fires were lighted, 
and the men commenced their toilet, which consisted in painting 
themselves white in spots and lines. As soon as all was ready, 
large fires were kept blazing, round which the women and chil- 
dren were collected as spectators; the Cockatoo and King 
George’s men formed two distinct parties, and generally danced 
in answer to each other. The dancing consisted in their running 
either sideways or in Indian file into an open space, and stamp- 
ing the ground with great force as they marched together. Their 
heavy footsteps were accompanied by a kind of grunt, by beating 
their clubs and spears together. and by various other gesticula- 
