DRYNESS OF THE COUNTRY. 23 



made. This was found, in consequence of shoal 

 bars, not to admit of the easy entrance of large ves- 

 sels farther than our anchorage. There were also 

 some large pine trees cut on Entrance Island for 

 repairing the bows and other purposes, for which 

 the wood was found very well adapted; and by cut- 

 ting up a small anchor, iron bars were substituted 

 at the lower part of the hawse-holes for our broken 

 hawse-pipes. In our excursions about the neigh- 

 bourhood we found the whole country dried up, and 

 not a drop of fresh water to be found any where, 

 except a gallon or two, very thick and dirty, in a 

 hole in Flinders' watering gulley behind Entrance 

 Island. Although the peninsula of Cape Clinton 

 abounded in gullies and water-courses, with evident 

 signs of great torrents occasionally, we could not 

 obtain a drop of water even by digging in them. 

 All the grass was dry and brown. In consequence 

 of this parched state of the country we found neither 

 natives nor animals near us. The only trace of the 

 former was a small hut near the entrance of the 

 north-west arm, and a man's footstep on the sand 

 leading to it. We saw also one day a native dog in 

 that direction. All the rocks around were por- 

 phyry, generally red outside and greyish internally; 

 but on the beach, near the ship, there were exposed 

 at low water, some beds of a hard, compact, yellow 

 sand-stone, containing pebbles of porphyry and frag- 

 ments of recent corals and shells. 



On the 20th> at 8 o'clock in the morning, Cap- 



