GEOLOGY OF PORT MOLLE. 47 



hammock under the forecastle, with a man constantly 

 attending on him. At four o'clock this morning, 

 however, on the hands being turned up, his attend- 

 ant went below to get a drink of water, and soon 

 after his return, found the hammock empty : search 

 was instantly made all over the ship, but in vain, 

 and Dowling was never seen again alive or dead. 

 It was supposed he took advantage of the absence 

 of the attendant to throw himself out of the bow- 

 port, and was thus drowned. It was the first death 

 that had occurred among us, and was felt accord- 

 ingly. 



The rocks of Port Molle and its neighbourhood 

 are of a doubtful character, it being often difficult 

 to say whether they are of purely igneous or of rae- 

 tamorphic origin. In some places they are certainly 

 stratified, being then a yellow or grey hard fine- 

 grained gritstone, or greywacke. The dip in these 

 was always W. or W.S.W. In other places, without 

 altering much in mineral character, the rock con- 

 tained many small dispersed crystals, and thus in 

 hand specimens had the appearance of a porphyry. 



The rock of Ragged Island, north of Port Molle, is 

 sometimes a greenstone, or sometimes a finer grained 

 igneous rock, but with many doubtful masses. In 

 the little cove where we landed was a small coral 

 reef, on which at low water several masses of madre- 

 pora and mseandrina were left dry almost to their 

 bases, although still living. About high water mark 

 were several beds of recent coral conglomerate, 



