478 
KING GEORGE’S SOUND 
CHAP. 
flourished in an extraordinary manner ; I saw one which must 
have been at least twenty feet high to the base of the fronds, 
and was in girth exactly six feet The fronds, forming the 
most elegant parasols, produced a gloomy shade, like that of 
the first hour of night. The summit of the mountain is broad 
and flat, and is composed of huge angular masses of naked 
greenstone. Its elevation is 3100 feet above the level of the 
sea. The day was splendidly clear, and we enjoyed a most 
extensive view ; to the north, the country appeared a mass of 
wooded mountains, of about the same height with that on 
which we were standing, and with an equally tame outline ; to 
the south the broken land and water, forming many intricate 
bays, was mapped with clearness before us. After staying 
some hours on the summit we found a better way to descend, 
but did not reach the Beagle till eight o’clock, after a severe 
day’s work. 
February 7th .—The Beagle sailed from Tasmania, and, on 
the 6th of the ensuing month, reached King George’s Sound, 
situated close to the S.W. corner of Australia. We stayed 
there eight days ; and we did not during our voyage pass a 
more dull and uninteresting time. The country, viewed from 
an eminence, appears a woody plain, with here and there 
rounded and partly bare hills of granite protruding. One day 
I went out with a party, in hopes of seeing a kangaroo-hunt, 
and walked over a good many miles of country. Everywhere 
we found the soil sandy, and very poor ; it supported either a 
coarse vegetation of thin, low brushwood and wiry grass, or a 
forest of stunted trees. The scenery resembled that of the 
high sandstone platform of the Blue Mountains ; the Casuarina 
(a tree somewhat resembling a Scotch fir) is, however, here in 
greater number, and the Eucalyptus in rather less. In the 
open parts there were many grass-trees,—a plant which, in 
appearance, has some affinity with the palm ; but, instead of 
being surmounted by a crown of noble fronds, it can boast 
merely of a tuft of very coarse grass-like leaves. The general 
bright green colour of the brushwood and other plants, viewed 
from a distance, seemed to promise fertility. A single walk, 
however, was enough to dispel such an illusion ; and he who 
thinks with me will never wish to walk again in so uninviting 
a country. 
