s greatest size.
The most striking shell of the sandflats is a handsome olive (O.
ispidula) remarkable for its extraordinary variations in colour, size,
and even form.

ABUNDANCE OF FRESH WATER.

In viewing Cape York as the probable site of a future settlement or
military post, an important feature to be noticed is the comparative
abundance of fresh water at the very close of the dry season. In Evans
Bay it may always be procured by digging behind the beach, especially at
the foot of some low wooded hillocks, towards its western end. Native
wells were met with in most of the smaller bays, and the size of the
dried-up watercourses indicates that during the wet season, a
considerable body is carried off by them from the flats and temporary
lagoons.

Were one inclined, from interested motives, to extol the natural
capabilities of the immediate neighbourhood of Cape York, it would be
very easy to speculate upon, and at once presume its peculiar fitness for
the growth of tropical produce. Thus, any swampy land might at once be
pronounced peculiarly adapted for paddy fields, and the remainder as
admirably suited to the growth of cotton, coffee, indigo, etc. With the
exception of a piece of rich soil, several acres in extent, on the
eastern margin of a watercourse, leading from the small lagoon behind
Evans Bay, and which would be a good site for a large garden, I did not
see much ground that was fit for cultivation. Very fine rich patches
occur here and there in the brushes removed from the coast, but in the
belts of brush along the beaches the soil, despite the accumulation of
vegetable matter, is essentially poor and sandy. It may be added that the
value of the garden land above alluded to, is much enhanced by its
proximity to a constant supply of water, to be procured by digging in the
bed of the lagoon. Nearly all the grass is of a coarse sedge-like
description, mixed, however, in places with grasses of a finer kind.
Towards the end of the dry season, the grass, when not burnt off by the
natives, presents a most uninviting, withered appearance, being so dry as
almost to crumble into dust if rubbed between the palms of the hand.

PORT ALBANY AS A DEPOT FOR STEAMERS.

As one of the more immediate beneficial results of our survey of the
Inner Passage, would be to facilitate its use by steamers, should
arrangements at present contemplated for the continuance of the overland
communication by Great Britain and India, from