Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 1.djvu/493

 COAST OF AuffrRALIA. "From the summit of the ridge," says Mr. Cun- 'ningham, "immediately above Careening Bay, (kt. s. the country continues in a series of barren, stony hills of ordinary elevation, divided by small valleys equally steril and rugged; clothed, ne-
 * �ertheless, with small trees of a stunted growth,

and of species common to the bay of our en- campment; nor was there' remarked, the least �change in the habit or state of fructification of .the several plants, throughout 'the whole space of an estimated distance of six miles south of the 'tents. "The summits of the hills are, for the most lart, 'ery rocky and bare of soil; and that of the valleys, or lower lands, appeared very shallow, -of a reddish colour, and of a very poor, hungry �nature. The rocks, with which the ground i.s ,ery �generally covered, are of the same sort of sand. -stone as is found upon the hills above the en- campment; but among them we observed a good deal of quartz, remarkable for its purity, of which some specimens were observed in a crysllied "In the season that succeeds that of the rains, the hills are covered with a lofty, reedy grass, whose dead stalks now form a matted stubble -among the trees, as was remarked on some

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