as well as the general aspect of the adjacent country, seem to justify the conclusion I arrived at while on the spot, that the land which now intervenes between the mountains and the shore, is a comparatively recent conquest from the sea.  The character of this land may be thus described:  The first three miles from the coast is occupied with ridges of hills, from 100 to 200 feet high, of calcareous limestone formation, cropping out in such innumerable points and odd shapes as to be almost impassable.  Some of these lumps resemble a large barnacle; both lumps and points are covered with long, coarse grass, and thus concealed, become a great hindrance to the pedestrian, who is constantly wounded by them.  To these ridges succeed sandy forest land and low hills, except on the banks of the rivulets, where a belt of alluvial soil is to be found.  The Darling range traverses the whole of Western Australia in a direction, generally speaking, north and south.  It appears to subside towards the north, and its greatest elevation is nearly 2,000 feet.  The cliffs of the coast at the mouth of Swan River, have a most singular appearance, as though covered with thousands of roots, twisted together into a species of network.

A singular cliff.

A similar curiosity is to be seen on Bald Head, in King George’s Sound, so often alluded to by former navigators, and by them mistaken either for coral, or petrified trees standing where they originally grew.  Bald Head was visited by Mr. Darwin, in company with Captain Fitzroy, in February 1836, and his opinions upon the agencies of formation, so exactly coincide with those to which I attribute the appearances at Arthur’s Head, that I cannot do better than borrow his words.  He says—­page 537, volume 3, “According to our views, the rock was formed by the wind heaping up calcareous sand, during which process, branches and roots of trees, and land-shells were enclosed, the mass being afterwards consolidated by the percolation of rain water.  When the wood had decayed, lime was washed into the cylindrical cavities, and became hard, sometimes even like that in a stalactite.  The weather is now wearing away the softer rock, and in consequence the casts of roots and branches project above the surface:  their resemblance to the stumps of a dead shrubbery was so exact, that, before touching them, we were sometimes at a loss to know which were composed of wood, and which of calcareous matter."*

(Footnote.  For more exact details the reader should consult Mr. Darwin’s volume on Volcanic Islands.)

The natives.