Page:Journals of Several Expeditions Made in Western Australia.djvu/210

 a great distance in a line with the coast; they constituted a lime-stone range, the rock of solid texture, and of the same description as that on the White Patch, and that occasionally, but rarely, seen on the conical hills, and again on the hills above Cape Leeuwin; to avoid the troublesome walking that the beach always affords, we kept a little inland; the soil was generally sandy and barren, but where the least symptom of an admixture of mould shewed itself, the grass-tree, of stinted stature, as though just struggling for existence, was always seen, and sometimes in extensive tracts. Before we came upon the White Patch, we encountered a valley, the most difficult of passage of any thing I ever yet met with in the shape of bush; its vegetation consisted solely of shrubs, advanced to a larger standard than usual in this country; the ground (I suppose in consequence of perpetual shade and want of circulation) was covered with moss, and on this we were obliged to crawl under the thicket, while sliding down and climbing up the numerous and steep descents and acclivities in which the place abounded: half a mile from this brought us upon that remarkable feature, the White Patch, and as I believe an opinion obtains, that it is a sand-stone, and formed of hardened drift from the beach, I shall insert my own observations.

The first peculiarity that strikes the eye is a large surface of limestone, upon which, in the hollows and lower parts, is deposited a considerable portion of sand, accumulated both from the sea shore (which the presence of broken shells attests) and from the gradual decomposition of the rock itself; and that this process is going rapidly on, I conclude from the following evidence:—above the surface on every