General Sketch of the Coast. 19 



above the sea, and that of the hills not more than from three 

 to four hundred feet. 



On this part of the coast, several hills are remarkable for 

 the flatness of their tops ; and the general outline of many of 

 the islands, as seen on the horizon, is very striking and pecu- 

 liar. Thus Mount Bedwell and Mount Roe, on the south of 

 Cobourg Peninsula ; Luxmoore Head, at the west end of Mel- 

 ville Island; the Barthelemy Hills, south of Cape Ford; Mount 

 Goodwin, south of Port Keats ; Mount Cockburn, and several 

 of the hills adjacent to Cambridge Gulf, — the names given to 

 which during the progress of the survey sufficiently indicate 

 their form, as House-roofed, Bastion, Flat-top, and Square-top 

 Hills ; — Mount Casuarina, about forty miles north-west of 

 Cambridge Gulf; — a hill near Cape Voltaire; — Steep-Head, 

 Port Warrender; — and several of the islands off that port, 

 York Sound, and Prince- Regent's River; — Cape Cuvier, about 

 latitude 24° ; — and, still further south, the whole of Moresby's 

 flat-topped Range, — are all distinguished by their linear and 

 nearly horizontal outlines ; and except in a few instances, as 

 Mount Cockburn, Steep- Head, Mounts Trafalgar and Water- 

 loo, (which look more like hills of floetz-trap,) they have very 

 much the aspect of the summits in the coal formation*. 



The subjoined sketch (PI. I. fig. 1 and 2) of some of the 

 islands off Admiralty Gulf, (looking southward from the north- 

 east end of Cassini Island, about lat. 13° 50', E. long. 125° 50',) 

 has some resemblance to one of the views in Peron's Atlas 

 (PL vi. fig. 7) : — and the outline of the lies Fortyin (PI. viii. 

 fig. 5, of the same series, or fig. 3 in our Plate,), also exhi- 

 bits remarkably the peculiar form represented in several of 

 Captain King's drawings. 



The red colour of the cliffs on the north-west and west coasts, 

 is also an appearance which is frequently noticed on the sketches 

 taken by Captain King and his officers. This is conspicuous 

 in the neighbourhood of Cape Croker ; — at Darch Island and 

 Palm Bay ; at Point Annesley and Point Coombe in Mount- 

 norris Bay; — in the land about Cape Van Diemen, and on the 

 north-west of Bathurst Island. The cliffs on Roe's River 

 (Prince Frederic's Harbour), as might have been expected 

 from the specimens, are described as of a reddish colour ; Cape 

 Leveque is of the same hue ; and the northern limit of Shark's 

 Bay, (Cape Cuvier of the French,)lat. 24° 13', which is like an 

 enormous bastion, may be distinguished at a considerable di- 

 stance by its full red colour f. 



* Captain King, however, has informed me, that in some of these cases, 

 the shape of the hill is really that of a roof, or hay-rick ; the transverse sec- 

 tion being angular, and the horizontal top an edge. f Freycinet, p. 195. 



C2 It 



