(*Footnote. M. Depuch, the mineralogist, died during the progress of the voyage, in 1803; and, unfortunately, none of his manuscripts were preserved. M. Peron, the zoologist, after publishing, in 1807, the first volume of the account of the expedition, died in 1810, before the appearance of the second volume. Voyage etc. 1 page 417, 418; and 2 page 163.)
(**Footnote. A Voyage to Terra Australis, etc., in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803, by Matthew Flinders, Commander of the Investigator. Two volumes quarto with an atlas folio; London 1814.)
(***Footnote. Voyage de Decouverte aux Terres Australes etc. Tome 1 redige par M. F. Peron, naturaliste de l'Expedition, Paris 1807. Tome 2 redige par M. Peron et M. L. Freycinet 1816. A third volume of this work, under the title of Navigation et Geographie, was published by Capt. Freycinet in 1815. It contains a brief and clear account of the proceedings of the expedition; and affords some particulars connected with the physical geography of the places described, which are not to be found in the other volumes.)
In order to avoid the interruption which would be occasioned by detail, I shall prefix to the list of specimens in Captain King's and Mr. Brown's collections, a general sketch of the coast from whence they come, deduced, principally, from the large charts,* and from the narratives of Captains Flinders and King, with a summary of the geological information derived from the specimens. But I have thought it necessary to subjoin a more detailed list of the specimens themselves; on account of the great distance from each other of many of the places where they were found, and of the general interest attached to the productions of a country so very remote, of which the greater part is not likely to be often visited by geologists. The situation of such of the places mentioned, as are not to be found in the reduced chart annexed to the present publication, will be sufficiently indicated by the names of the adjacent places.
(*Footnote. These charts have been published by the Admiralty for general sale.)
GENERAL SKETCH OF THE COAST.
The North-eastern coast of New South Wales, from the latitude of about 28 degrees, has a direction from south-east to north-west; and ranges of mountains are visible from the sea, with little interruption, as far north as Cape Weymouth, between the latitude of 12 and 13 degrees. From within Cape Palmerston, west of the Northumberland Islands, near the point where Captain King began his surveys, a high and rocky range, of very irregular outline, and apparently composed of primitive rocks, is continued for more than one hundred and fifty miles, without any break; and after a remarkable opening, about the latitude of 21 degrees, is again resumed. Several of the summits, visible from the sea, in the front of this range, are of considerable elevation: Mount Dryander, on the promontory which terminates in Cape Gloucester, being more than four thousand five hundred feet high. Mount Eliot, with a peaked summit, a little to the south of Cape Cleveland, is visible at twenty-five leagues distance; and Mount Hinchinbrook, immediately upon the shore, south of Rockingham Bay, is more than two thousand feet high. From the south of Cape Grafton to Cape Tribulation, precipitous hills, bordered by low land, form the coast; but the latter Cape itself consists of a lofty group, with several peaks, the highest of which is visible from the sea at twenty leagues. The heights from thence towards the north decline gradually, as the mountainous ranges approach the shore, which they join at Cape Weymouth, about latitude 12 degrees; and from that point northward, to Cape York, the land in general is comparatively low, nor do any detached points of considerable elevation appear there. But about midway between Cape Grenville and Cape York, on the mainland south-west of Cairncross Island, a flat summit called Pudding-Pan Hill is conspicuous; and its shape, which differs from that of the hills on the east coast in general, remarkably resembles that of the mountains of the north and west coasts, to which names expressing their form have been applied.*
(*Footnote. Jane's Table-Land, south-east of Princess Charlotte's Bay (about latitude 14 degrees 30 minutes) and Mount Adolphus, in one of the islands (a
bout latitude 10 degrees 40 minutes) off Cape York, have also flat summits. King manuscripts.)
The line of the coast above described retires at a point which corresponds with the decline of its level; and immediately on the north of Cape Melville is thrown back to the west; so that the high land about that Cape stands out like a shoulder, more than forty miles beyond the coastline between Princess Charlotte's Bay and the north-eastern point of Australia.