sir c. hardy's islands. 125 



July 12. — Sir Charles Hardy's Islands are three 

 small rocky islands, covered principally with coarse 

 grass ; a few small trees, or bushes only, growing in 

 the more sheltered corners. 



The southern one is very small ; the two others 

 larger : the northern one rising at its highest point, 

 about 280 feet above the level of the sea. The 

 rock was siliceous, hard, and brittle, of a brown 

 colour • it sometimes put on the appearance of 

 flinty slate, at others it seemed to be passing into 

 porphyry, containing here and there crystals of red 

 feldspar. I could not make out any satisfactory 

 lines of stratification, nor were any other of its 

 divisional planes regular or persistent. Small 

 fringing coral reefs surrounded the islands, on 

 which I got a better harvest of shells and mollusca 

 than I had hitherto been able to procure. Calca- 

 reous sandstone, with corals and shells, was found 

 here and there above the reach of high water, with 

 pandanus trees growing upon it, but not sensibly 

 differing in structure or appearance from the mass 

 of the reef that was covered at high water. 



July 14 to 18. — I accompanied Mr. Aird in the 

 " Midge" to Cape Grenville, from the summit of 

 which a set of angles was wanted. We anchored 

 among Sir Everard Homes Group, and the next 

 day landed with a party of six men, all being well 

 armed, but did not see a single native, nor any 

 trace of one. From the top of the hill over the 

 Cape, which was about 400 feet high, we looked 



