The exploring party saw a few natives, but they were too shy to communicate.  One was discovered on a long flat, crawling on his hands and knees, to catch a glimpse of the strange intruders, and looking more like a great insect than a man.  In the distance up the river a good many smokes appeared; but I doubt whether this may be considered as denoting a densely populated country, as fires are kindled by the Australian natives, both as signals and for the purposes of hunting.

GEOLOGICAL QUERIES.

Previous to my departure from England, I had the pleasure of hearing a valuable paper by my friend Mr. Darwin, on the formation of coral islands,* read at the Geological Society; my attention being thus awakened to the subject, the interest of this important paper was to me greatly enhanced by a series of queries, kindly furnished by Mr. Darwin, and drawn up with a view to confirm or invalidate his views, his purpose being to elicit truth from a combination of well attested facts, and by inducing the research of others to further the objects of science.

Among these queries was the following:  “Are there masses of coral or beds of shells some yards above high water mark, on the coast fronting the barrier reef?”

(Footnote.  See also the Hydrographer’s Instructions supra.)

RAISED BEACHES.

Captain King, in answer to the above states, that some of the islands within the reef have beaches of broken coral; and, as an instance, he refers to Fitzroy island.

I will, myself, here adduce what may be deemed an important fact; and which, if allowed its due weight, will go far to weaken the arguments brought forward in favour of the subsidence of the North-East coast of Australia.  I found a flat nearly a quarter of a mile broad, in a quiet sheltered cove, within the cape, thickly strewed with dead coral and shells, forming, in fact, a perfect bed of them—­a raised beach of twelve feet above high-water mark.  On the sandy beach fronting it, also a few feet above high-water mark, was a concretion of sand and dead coral, forming a mass about fifty yards long.  Fronting this, for about the width of one hundred and fifty feet, was a wall of coral with two feet water on it; and immediately outside, five fathoms, with a fine sandy bottom, slightly sloping off.  The annexed woodcut will better explain what we have here endeavoured to bring before the reader.

SECTION OF THE COAST.

This small coral-strewed flat where our observations were made, and the results of which are as follows; latitude 19 degrees 42 3/4 minutes South; longitude 15 degrees 36 1/2 minutes East of Port Essington, is surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills.  Had it been on the seaward side of the Cape, I might have been readier to imagine that it could have been thrown up by the sea in its ordinary action, or when suddenly disturbed by an earthquake wave; but as the contrary is the case, it seemed impossible to come to any other conclusion, than that an upheaval had taken place.  The whole of Cape Upstart is a granite mass, and its crests are covered with boulders, some of which have rolled down and form rather conspicuous objects on the shores and points of the bay.