48 
Report of the Expedition 
and crossed a small plain, in which a mangrove creek turned to 
the westward, and further on a tea-tree swamp equally to the 
west. On a fine plain we met a tribe of black fellows (NywalPs 
tribe,) who guided us to a good-sized lagoon. This plain extended 
far to the northward and westward. Two isolated peaks and two 
low ranges were seen from it to the east and south-east. We 
crossed and skirted these plains in a north-north-west course, and 
entered the forest land, which was undulating with low ironstone 
ridges, from which numerous creeks went down to Van Diemen’s 
Gulf, along which we travelled. Black fellows had guided us two 
days, but they left us at the neck of the Coburg Peninsula, which 
we entered on a fine footpath. Keeping a little too much to the 
northward on a narrow neck, we came to westerly waters and to 
Mountnorris Bay. I turned, however, again to the westward, to 
come to westerly waters. Creeks are numerous on both sides, 
and fresh water was frequent after the late thunder showers. I 
made my latitude at 11 deg. 32 min. on a westerly water, and 
at 11 deg. 26 min. on an easterly water (Baki Baki’s Creek.) 
Keeping a little too much to the northward, from the latter creek, 
I came to Raffle’s Bay, from which black fellows familiar with 
the settlement guided us round Port Essington to Victoria, which 
I entered at about five o'clock, the 17th December, 1845. 
Ridges composed of the clayey ironstone (a ferruginous psam- 
mite,) which 1 had found so extensively in travelling round the 
gulf, form the watershed in the neck of the Coburg Peninsula, 
and become more numerous and higher within the Peninsula itself. 
Between Mountnorris Bay and Raffle’s Bay I passed several high 
ridges and a fine running creek, about fifteen miles from the head 
of the harbour. The ridges are rather densely wooded. The 
stringy-bark, the melaleuca gum, the leguminous iron-bark, are 
the prevailing timber. Along the creeks and in the swamps, the 
tea-tree grows to a stately size and yields an excellent timber. 
The stringy-bark is useful for its bark and its wood. The cypress 
pine is abundant on the neck of the Peninsula. The cabbage 
palm, with long pinnatifid leaves, grows along some of the 
creeks, and even on the ridges, and forms groves, and almost a 
forest at Montjejalk, between Raffle’s Bay and the harbour. The 
