COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
79 
and terminate with a shoal ; which, off the former, * 818 . 
is of rocks ; and near its extremity is a single A P ril 15 - 
mangrove bush, which was seen and set from 
Copeland Island’s summit. 
The next morning, at daylight, we passed 
round the north extremity of the island, which 
was named Cape Croker, in compliment to the 
first secretary of the Admiralty ; and anchored 
on the north side of a bight round the cape, 
which was subsequently named Palm Bay. 
In the afternoon we landed, and ascending the 
hill or bank behind the beach, obtained a view 
of the coast of the bay : a distant wooded point, 
called, from its unusual elevation, High Point, 
bounded our view to the south ; but to the S.W. 
some patches of land were indistinctly visible. 
Tracks of natives were seen in many places, and 
the marks of footsteps on the beach had been 
very recently impressed. On the bank a circular 
spot of ground, of fifteen yards in diameter, was 
cleared away, and had very lately been occupied 
by a tribe of natives. The island is thickly 
wooded with a dwarf species of eucalyptus, but 
here and there the fan palm and pandanus grew 
in groups, and with the acacia, served to vary 
the otherwise monotonous appearance of the 
country. The soil, although it was shallow 
and poor, was covered with grass, and a great 
