We landed almost daily upon Facing Island, which was traversed in every direction, but nowhere could we find a practicable watering place for the ship; in fact, during our excursions, it was found necessary to carry a supply of water with us, not being able to depend upon obtaining any on shore. The island is 8 1/2 miles long and 2 3/4 in greatest width; it is generally low, the most elevated part, Signal Hill, situated at its south end, measuring only 275 feet in height. Its aspect is various; the shores, as well as those of the adjacent mainland, are often muddy, and covered with mangroves, fringing creeks, and occupying swamps more or less extensive, while the remainder of the country is either covered with the usual monotonous gum-trees, or, as over a large portion of the sea face, covered with coarse sedgy grass and small bushes, on sandy ground, which rises into a series of low sandhills extending along the coast. During winter there must be much water, judging from several nearly dried up lagoons and swamps, and some empty watercourses.
EXCURSION ON THE ISLAND.
In company with Mr. Huxley, I made an excursion of two days' duration, with the double view of seeing the country and adding to my collection. We started heavily laden with provisions, water, arms and ammunition, besides boxes, botanical paper and boards, and other collecting gear; and although taking it very easily, the fatigue of walking in a sultry day, with the thermometer at 90 degrees in the shade, afforded a sample of what we had afterwards so often to experience during our rambles in tropical Australia. Towards the northern end of the island we found several creeks and lagoons of salt and brackish water, occasionally communicating with the sea, probably under the conjoined influences of spring tides and a strong easterly wind. Towards evening, finding among the contents of our game-bags several ducks, of two species--Anas superciliosa, the black duck of the colonists, the richest and best flavoured of all the Australian waterfowl, and A. punctata, or teal, we had them cooked bush fashion, for supper. The night being fine, we enjoyed our bivouac upon the top of a sandhill, near the sea, by the side of a dead Pandanus, which served as firewood--although it was judged expedient to keep watch by turns, and go the rounds occasionally, especially after the setting of the moon and before daybreak. We saw no recent signs of natives, however, during our absence from the ship; but former experience upon this coast had taught me how necessary it is to be ever on one's guard, even in apparently uninhabited places; and such watchfulness soon becomes habitual, and at length ceases to be irksome. Next day we returned to the ship, more than ever convinced of the comparative uselessness of the country which we had gone over for agricultural or even pastoral purposes, except on a very small scale. On our way back we met with two horses, both in good condition, which had been left by Colonel Barney's party.
GLADSTONE SETTLEMENT.
On another occasion Mr. Huxley and myself landed at the site of the settlement of Gladstone, and were picked up in the evening by Captain Stanley in one of the surveying boats, on his return to the ship. It is difficult to conceive a more dreary spot, and yet I saw no more eligible place for a settlement on the shores of the harbour. A few piles of bricks, the sites of the tents, some posts, indicating the remains of a provisional Government-house, wheel-ruts in the hardened clay, the stumps of felled trees, together with a goodly store of empty bottles strewed about everywhere, remained as characteristics of the first stage of Australian colonisation. Within 200 yards of the township we came upon a great expanse of several hundred acres of bare mud, glistening with crystals of salt, bordered on one side by a deep muddy creek, and separated from the shore by thickets of mangroves. The country for several miles around is barren in the extreme, consisting for the most part of undulating, stony, forest land. I have heard, however, that there is much good pastoral country at the back. We found no fresh water during our walk; of two wells which had been dug by the settlers, through stiff clay, one was dry, and the other contained a puddle of brackish water, not fit to drink. We met with few birds, but saw many tracks of emus and kangaroos.
NATIVES SEEN AT A DISTANCE.
During our stay at Port Curtis, we had no intercourse whatever with the natives, although anxious to establish friendly communication. With the aid of the spyglass, we could occasionally make out a few, chiefly women, collecting shellfish on the mudflats of the mainland, and their fires were daily seen in every direction. The employment of firearms against them on several occasions by the crew of the Lord Auckland (under, apparently, justifiable circumstances however) which left the harbour, after repairing her damages, only a few months before our arrival, had probably taught the natives to look with distrust upon white men; and they cautiously avoided our parties.
On Facing Island, our sportsmen found little inland to recompense them for their trouble, except blue mountain parrots and quail; but along the shore, curlews, oystercatchers, and godwits, were plentiful. One day I killed a bustard (Otis australasiana) weighing 22 1/2 pounds; the goodness of its flesh was duly appreciated by my messmates. Several small flocks of this noblest of the Australian gamebirds were seen; but, from their frequenting the open country, and being very wary, it is only by stratagem or accident that they can be approached within gunshot. No land snakes were seen, but sea snakes seem to be frequent in the harbour.
SHARKS AND SHELLS.
Sharks of enormous size appeared to be common; one day we caught two, and while the first taken was hanging under the ship's stern, others made repeated attacks upon it, raising their heads partially out of the water, and tearing off long strips of the flesh before the creature was dead. Another swam off apparently as active as ever, although a musket ball had been fired through its head. On several occasions a party was sent to haul the seine upon a neighbouring mudflat covered at high-water, and generally made good captures, especially of mullet and bream (Chrysophrys); in addition, many other more curious fishes were caught, and several rare and new crustacea--Squilla, Lupea thalamita, and a new genus allied to Gonoplax, which will be found described in the Appendix. Of landshells, only two kinds, a Helix and a Succinea, were found upon Facing Island. Of marine species, 41 were added to the collection; the most important in a non-zoological point of view is a kind of rock oyster of delicious flavour and large size.