nsely populated country, as fires are kindled by the Australian
natives, both as signals and for the purposes of hunting.

GEOLOGICAL QUERIES.

Previous to my departure from England, I had the pleasure of hearing a
valuable paper by my friend Mr. Darwin, on the formation of coral
islands,* read at the Geological Society; my attention being thus
awakened to the subject, the interest of this important paper was to me
greatly enhanced by a series of queries, kindly furnished by Mr. Darwin,
and drawn up with a view to confirm or invalidate his views, his purpose
being to elicit truth from a combination of well attested facts, and by
inducing the research of others to further the objects of science.

Among these queries was the following: "Are there masses of coral or beds
of shells some yards above high water mark, on the coast fronting the
barrier reef?"

(*Footnote. See also the Hydrographer's Instructions supra.)

RAISED BEACHES.

Captain King, in answer to the above states, that some of the islands
within the reef have beaches of broken coral; and, as an instance, he
refers to Fitzroy island.

I will, myself, here adduce what may be deemed an important fact; and
which, if allowed its due weight, will go far to weaken the arguments
brought forward in favour of the subsidence of the North-East coast of
Australia. I found a flat nearly a quarter of a mile broad, in a quiet
sheltered cove, within the cape, thickly strewed with dead coral and
shells, forming, in fact, a perfect bed of them--a raised beach of twelve
feet above high-water mark. On the sandy beach fronting it, also a few
feet above high-water mark, was a concretion of sand and dead coral,
forming a mass about fifty yards long. Fronting this, for about the width
of one hundred and fifty feet, was a wall of coral with two feet water on
it; and immediately outside, five fathoms, with a fine sandy bottom,
slightly sloping off. The annexed woodcut will better explain what we
have here endeavoured to bring before the reader.

SECTION OF THE COAST.

This small coral-strewed flat where our observations were made, and the
results of which are as follows; latitude 19 degrees 42 3/4 minutes
South; longitude 15 degrees 36 1/2 minutes East of Port Essington, is
surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills. Had it been on the seaward side
of the Cape, I might have been readier to imagine that it could have been
thrown up by the sea in its ordinary action, or when suddenl