MOUNT HINCHINBROOK.
West-North-West 35 Miles.
Although a number of fires being once seen is not always a sign in Australia of a densely populated part of the country, yet when they are constantly visible, as in this part of the continent, it is fair to infer, that the inhabitants are numerous, and the soil fertile. I might further remark, that Captain King found the natives well disposed; and at Goold Island, in this neighbourhood, they even came on board his vessel uninvited, an evidence of friendship and confidence, rarely characterizing a race of beings so wary as are generally the inhabitants of Australia.
It is not a little singular that the altitude of Mount Hinchinbrook should be identical with what Strzelecki considers the mean height of the Cordillera, which he traced continually on foot, from 31 to 44 degrees South latitude giving to the highest point, 6500 feet in latitude 36 degrees 20 minutes South, the name of Mount Kosciusko, for reasons most admirably and feelingly expressed, and which we therefore, in justice to his patriotic sentiments, give below in his own words.* It will thus be seen that there is a northerly dip in the cordillera of 3000 feet in 18 degrees of latitude.
(*Footnote. "The particular configuration of this eminence struck me so forcibly, by the similarity it bears to a tumulus elevated in Krakow, over the tomb of the patriot Kosciusko, that although in a foreign country, on foreign ground, but amongst a free people, who appreciate freedom and its votaries, I could not refrain from giving it the name of Mount Kosciusko.")
The great height of this range, and the extreme abruptness of its eastern face, where no waters are thrown off, renders it more than probable that on the western side there is land of great fertility. Whatever waters originate on its summit and slopes, must flow towards the interior, and there give rise to rivers emptying themselves into the Gulf of Carpentaria, or by first forming lagoons, feed streams of some magnitude even, during their overflow.
HALIFAX BAY.
It is the general opinion of every voyager who has sailed along the coast of Halifax Bay, that it is the most interesting portion of the north-east side of the continent; as, combining the several facts which we have above given, we have every reason to believe that the discovery of fertile and therefore valuable land, will one day reward the labours of the explorer.
Nothing was seen by us of the San Antonio reef, laid down in the charts as fronting the Palm Isles; but this was subsequently accounted for by Captain Stanley, who found that it was sixteen miles north of its supposed position, being in latitude 18 degrees 17 minutes South, and twenty-four miles distant from the nearest land, Hillock Point.
This fact is the more satisfactory and important that, from its present position, as laid down in the chart, being supposed to be near the Palm Islands, it was apt to create an unpleasant state of anxiety in the mind of those navigating these waters during thick weather or at night.