pen and grassy, upon which a stunted eucalyptus is common; here Mr.
Cunningham found two species of grevillea, and the sago palm (Cycas
media) which also grows near the mouth of the river, above which the
Seaforthia elegans occasionally raised its towering head, and with its
picturesque foliage served to vary and enrich the scene.

Mr. Cunningham, in return for the plants he collected, sowed peach and
apricot stones in many parts near the banks.

The river is generally very shallow, but at nine miles from the mouth the
water is fresh. At the place where the party turned back the width was
not more than six yards. On their return they examined another arm on the
north side, which proving inconsiderable, and the evening being far
advanced, they did not delay to examine it.

July 10.

On the 10th our boat was launched and preparations were made for leaving
the place which has afforded us so good an opportunity of repairing our
defects.

The basis of the country in the vicinity of this river is evidently
granitic; and, from the abrupt and primitive appearance of the land about
Cape Tribulation and to the north of Weary Bay, there is every reason to
suppose that granite is also the principal feature of those mountains;
but the rocks that lie loosely scattered about the beaches and surface of
the hills on the south side of the entrance are of quartzose substance;
and this likewise is the character of the hills at the east end of the
long northern beach, where the rocks are coated with a quartzose crust,
that in its crumbled state forms a very unproductive soil. The hills on
the south side of the port recede from the banks of the river and form an
amphitheatre of low grassy land, and some tolerable soil upon the surface
of which, in many parts, we found large blocks of granite heaped one upon
another. Near the tent we found coal; but the presence of this mineral in
a primitive country, at an immense distance from any part where a coal
formation is known to exist, would puzzle the geologist, were I not to
explain all I know upon the subject. Upon referring to the late Sir
Joseph Banks's copy of the Endeavour's log (in the possession of my
friend Mr. Brown) I found the following remark, under date of 21st and
22nd June, 1770. "Employed getting our coals on shore." This is also
confirmed in the account of the voyage;* and, when it is taken into
consideration that we found it on no other part than the very spot that
Captain C