The natives, in all parts of the continent alike, seem to possess very primitive notions upon the subject of habitation; their most comfortable wigwams hardly deserve the name:  not even in the neighbourhood of English settlements are they beginning in any degree to imitate our European notions of comfort.  Among these northern people, the only approach to anything like protection from the skiey influences that I could discover, was a slight rudely thatched covering, placed on four upright poles, between three and four feet high.

Another, of a much superior description, which I visited on the western shore of King’s Sound, will be found delineated in that part of my journal to which the narrative belongs.

WIND AND WEATHER.

February 10.

We remained at this anchorage until the 10th of February, in consequence of a continuance of bad weather; indeed, the rain during the three first days of that month was at times of the most monsoon-like character, while the wind, constantly blowing very fresh, kept veering from North-West to South-West.  Every now and then, by way of agreeable variety, a heavy squall would take us from South-South-West, though more commonly from West-South-West.  The only certainty that we could calculate upon, was, that at North-North-West the wind would remain when it got there, stationary for a few hours.  The thunder and lightning, the former loud and with a long reverberating peal, and the latter of the most intensely vivid kind, were constantly roaring and flashing over our heads; and, with the stormy echoes which the rolling deep around woke on these unknown and inhospitable shores, completed a scene that I shall never cease to remember, as I never then beheld it without mingled emotions of apprehension and delight.  The rain, however, certainly befriended us in more ways than one:  it cooled the atmosphere, which would else have been insufferably hot, diminished for a time the number and virulence of our winged tormentors, and recruited our stock of fresh water; for, though ultimately we were not obliged to have recourse to it as a beverage, it did exceedingly well for washing purposes.  We had also, during this time, one most successful haul with the seine, which amply supplied us with fresh fish for that and the two following days; the greater part were a kind of large mullet, the largest weighed six pounds five ounces, and measured twenty-five inches in length.

TIDAL PHENOMENON.

On the same day we remarked, owing to the North-West wind, a singular phenomenon in the tides here.  From half-ebb to high-water the stream wholly ceased, and the water being heaped up in the bay by the force of the wind, fell only sixteen, instead of twenty-four feet.

Several sporting excursions were made during this period, but with comparatively little success.  It is not a country naturally very abundant in game of any kind, except kangaroos, which are numerous, but so harassed by the natives as to be of course extremely shy of the approach of man.