Page:Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies.djvu/146

110 contiguous hills, Banksia serratifolia is the prevailing tree. This, so far as I know, is its only locality in V. D. Land. It is equal to a Pear-tree in size, has leaves 3 or 4 inches long, and ⅝ broad, and strongly toothed: its heads of flowers are 6 inches long, and 12 round; and the seeds are as large as almonds.

The ascent of some of the hills was as steep as a horse could climb, and in some places, little but bare rocks. Some whitening, human bones lay by the side of one of the paths through this dreadful country, in a situation likely for a person exhausted by fatigue, to sink down and die.—Sometimes, we had to lay hold of the manes of the horses, to retain our seats, sometimes to leap over logs, in awkward situations, and sometimes it was impracticable to ride. In some places, the scrub, of Acacia verticellata, was so thick that we could not see each other, and when we came upon Table Cape, a fern, Pteris esculenta, was so deep as to obscure us from the view of each other.

In the evening, we descended a steep place, at the foot of which, on the coast, there was a grassy level, watered by a clear spring. Here we took up our abode for the night, and formed beds of dry fern and branches, under the shelter of a tarpawling, and a Honey-suckle-tree; and after another meal, of which tea formed a refreshing part, retired to rest, two of our attendants having previously returned to Circular Head with some cattle.

14th. Early in the morning we mended our fire, and supplied ourselves with water for breakfast, from the roof of a cave, in compact silicious rock, imbedding a variety of shells, of similar species to the recent ones on the strand below. We made a hasty meal of tea with beef-pasties, which we took while walking about in the rain, and listening to loud peals of thunder. Lotus australis, a bushy plant with pretty, pink, pea-flowers, which also occurs at Cape Grim, was growing here.—The bones of a person supposed to have been a soldier, and some of his fishing tackle, &c. were some time since, found among the fern, by the sea side, at this place, by one of the Company's servants.

After ascending to the top of Table Cape, we passed over