.JSTov., 1928 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
95 
Somerset, was* the original settlement, before it was 
moved to the desolate spot known as Thursday Island. 
The moving of the settlement to Thursday Island was a 
very great mistake. Millions of tons of rock exist on 
either side of the pass, and by blocking the eastern end 
of the pass, one of the finest and most beautiful harbours 
in the world would have been made. Not only that, but 
settlement would have spread over the Cape and could 
have been reached by land as well as by water, whereas 
now Thursday Island can never be any good for settle- 
ment. 
Albany Island forms one side of the pass, and on 
the mainland about the centre of the pass, Somerset House 
is built. For many years it was occupied by that great 
pioneer of the north, Mr. Frank Jardine, and his family. 
Frank Jardine and his wife now rest in a beautiful spot 
just above high water, in the pass that he loved so well. 
The country, generally, consists of large tracts of 
scrub, or rain forest, with belts of open forest, which 
consist of several kinds of eucalypts and other trees, such 
as Melalenca (tea-tree) and wattles (Acacia). There are 
no mountains, but some of the hills are fairly .high and 
very rough. 
There are only two seasons in that part — the south- 
east and north-west. From April to November the wind 
blows steadily day and night from the south-east. Dur- 
ing this period very little rain falls, and most of the 
waters dry up. Then towards the end of November or 
beginning of December the wind veers to the north-west. 
Thunderstorms occur, and are followed by heavy rains, 
which continue till the end of March. Dry creeks become 
raging torrents, swamps are filled; the scrubs teem with 
insect and bird life, and in the open parts, the grass, 
which has all been burnt off, grows rapidly till it is 
almost impossible to walk through it. Trees and shrubs 
are laden with bloom, and in the scrubs acres of lilies 
and ground orchids bloom, a veritable Garden of Eden, 
and the serpents are there, too. Numbers of them, large 
and small, many grow to 20 feet and over in length. 
Now we must get on to the birds. If you were on 
('ape ^ ork during the so-called winter months (for there 
is really no winter, the thermometer rarely going below 
60 deg.), you would be struck by the seeming absence of 
bird life, because in the dark scrubs or rain forests the 
birds are very silent and are seldom seen. But as winter 
gives place to spring, the scrubs awake to life ; especially 
is this so in- the early morn, when one wakes to hear the 
