King Georges Sound.] TERRA A U ST R A LIS. 
Sound and Princess-Royal Harbour, the granite is generally covered 
with a crust of calcareous stone ; as it is, also, upon Michaelmas 
Island. Captain Vancouver mentions (Vol. I. p. 49) having found 
upon the top of Bald Head, branches of coral protruding through 
the sand, exactly like those seen in the coral beds beneath the sur- 
face of the sea ; a circumstance which should seem to bespeak this 
country to have emerged from the ocean at no very distant period 
of time. This curious fact I was desirous to verify ; and his de- 
scription was proved to be correct. I found, also, two broken 
columns of stone three or four feet high, formed like stumps of 
trees and of a thickness superior to the body of a man ; but whether 
they were of coral, or of wood now petrified or whether they 
might not have been calcareous rocks, worn into that particular form 
by the weather, I cannot determine. Their elevation above the pre- 
sent level of the sea could not have been less than four hundred 
feet. 
But little calcareous matter was found elsewhere than on the 
southern shores. In Oyster Harbour, a rather strongly impreg- 
nated iron stone prevails, but mixed with quartz and granite ; and 
in some parts of both harbours, a brown argillaceous earth was not 
uncommon. 
The soil of the hills is very barren, though, except near the 
sea coast, generally covered with wood ; and that of the plains at 
the head of Princess-Royal Harbour, has been described as shallow, 
and incapable of cultivation. In the neighbourhood of Oyster Har- 
bour the land was said to be better, especially near the rivulet which 
falls into the northern corner ; and on the borders of a small lake, 
at the back of the long beach between the two harbours, the country 
was represented to be pleasing to the eye, and tolerably fertile. 
The timber trees of the woods consist principally of different 
species of that extensive class called gum-tree by the colonists at 
Port Jackson, by botanists eucalyptus. They do not grow very large 
here, and the wood is heavy and seldom fit for other than common 
63 
1802. 
January. 
