General Sketch of the Coast. 23 



veyed. From the specimens collected by Captain King and 

 the French descriptions, it appears that the islands on the west 

 of Shark's Bay abound in a concretional calcareous rock of 

 very recent formation, similar to what is found on the shore 

 in several other parts of New Holland, especially in the neigh- 

 bourhood of King George's Sound; — and which is abundant 

 also on the coast of the West Indian Islands, and of the Me- 

 diterranean. Captain King's specimens of this production 

 are from Dirk Hartog's and Rottnest Islands ; and M. Peron 

 states that the upper parts of Bernier and Dorre Islands are 

 composed of a rock of the same nature. This part of the coast 

 is covered in various places with extensive dunes of sand ; but 

 the nature of the base, on which both these and the calcareous 

 formation repose, has not been ascertained. 



The general direction of the rocky shore, from North-west 

 Cape to Dirk Hartog's Island, is from the east of north to 

 the west of south. On the south of the latter place the land 

 turns towards the east. High, rocky and reddish cliffs have 

 been seen indistinctly about latitude 27° ; and a coast of the 

 same aspect has been surveyed, from Red Point, about lati- 

 tude 28°, for more than eighty miles to the south-west. The 

 hills called Moresby's flat-topped Range, of which Mount 

 Fairfax, latitude 28° 45', is the highest point, occupy a space 

 of more than fifty miles from north to south. 



Rottnest Island and its vicinity, latitude 32°, contains in 

 abundance the calcareous concretions already mentioned ; 

 which seem there to consist in a great measure of the remains 

 of recent shells, in considerable variet}\ The islands of this 

 part of the shore have been described by MM. Peron and 

 Freycinet * ; and the coast to the south, down to Cape Leeu- 

 win, the south-western extremity of New Holland, having been 

 sufficiently examined by the French voyagers, was not sur- 

 veyed by Captain King. 



Swan River [Riviere des Cygnes), upon this part of the coast, 

 latitude 31° 25' to 32°, was examined by the French expedi- 

 tion, to the distance of about twenty leagues from its mouth ; 

 and found still to contain salt water. The rock in its neigh- 

 bourhood consisted altogether of sandy and calcareous incrus- 

 tations, in horizontal beds, inclosing, it is stated, shells and the 

 roots and even trunks of trees. Between this river and Cape 

 Peron, a " great bay" was left unexplored f. 



The prominent mass of land, which stands out from the 

 main, between Cape Naturaliste and Cape Leeuwin, and runs 

 nearly on the meridian for more than fifty miles, seems to have 



* Peron, vol. ii. p. 168, &c. f Peron, vol. i. p. 179. Freycinet, 



p. 5. 170. 



a base 



