Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 1.djvu/421

 Rh more scarified than their countrymen to the southward, and their teeth are perfect. One of our visitors had a fillet of plaited grass, whitened by pigment, bound round hiss head, and this was the only ornament worn by them.

The spear was of very rude form, and seemed to be a branch of the mangrove-tree, made straight by the effect of fire: it did not appear that they used the throwing-stick.

The soil of the hills of Cape Clinton is of good quality, but the country at the back of the port appears to be chiefly marshy land. Mr. Hunter sowed orange and lemon seeds in various places in the neighbourhood of the cape; the climate of this part is so well adapted for those trees, that, ff it were so possible to protect them from the fires of the natives, they would soon grow up, and pove a valuable refreshment to voyagers.

Captain Flinders describes the soil at the northern part of the port to be "either sandy or stony, and unfit for cultivation ." The country around Mount Westalll is also formed of a shallow soil, but the low lands are covered with grass and trees, and thee ravines and sides of the hills are covered with stunted pine-tees which were thought to be the armouria excelsa.