CAPABILITIES OF THE COUNTRY. 36l 



side, with the bottoms of the upper ones resting on 

 the tops of the lower ones, any sloping surface or 

 frame- work is immediately provided with a water- 

 tight roof. 



The weather, while we were in Port Essington at 

 this time, was mostly fine, but very hot : in the 

 shadiest part of the hospital, which is the coolest 

 and best ventilated building in the place, the ther- 

 mometer was often as high as 96° at eight o'clock in 

 the morning, and sometimes above 100° at noon ; after 

 that a heavy thunder shower would commonly occur, 

 producing a sensible relief. Captain M 'Arthur in- 

 formed me that this season there had been less rain 

 than was usual at this time of the year. There was 

 some talk of throwing open Port Essington as a 

 colony, and selling land to any body willing to pur- 

 chase at the common Australian rate, namely, an 

 upset price of £1 per acre. I am at a loss to con- 

 ceive what any one could do with land here, if he 

 even had the whole peninsula given him. Sheep, if 

 they lived at all, would soon have their woolly coats 

 converted into hair. There is but little food and no 

 market for cattle. Rice might probably be raised 

 in small quantities on the borders of the lagoons ; 

 but to raise either rice, sugar, coffee, cotton, or 

 any other valuable tropical produce, for export, 

 requires both large tracts of rich soil and an abun- 

 dant population ; two things which do not now 

 exist at Port Essington, nor, I will take upon 

 mvself to assert, ever can be formed there. A few 



