CHANGE OF LANDSCAPE.

Our eyes were now relieved by a pleasing change of landscape; the land had wholly changed in character from that of which we had seen so much and grown so weary.  It no longer stretched away in an illimitable and boundless plain, but rising abruptly from the water’s edge, attained an elevation of 700 feet.  The highest part of this range (afterwards named Compass Hill) bore North by West distant four and a quarter miles.  We were all of course exceedingly anxious to visit this new land; but the weather, strange to say, put our patience to a trial of four days, during which it equalled in severity any we had experienced under Swan Point.  It commenced with dark masses of clouds rising in the east, which were soon followed by a fresh breeze from the South-East with heavy rain, gradually freshening as it came round to the westward, blowing hardest between West-South-West and West-North-West.  The barometer being out of order we were unable to observe how this unusual change would have affected that instrument; the thermometer, however, fell to 76 degrees, an alteration of temperature which, combined with the dampness of the atmosphere, exposed us to the novel sensation of cold.  We noticed the time of high-water was about fifteen minutes earlier than at Point Torment, the flood-stream setting East-South-East and the ebb west.  The former at a rate of two miles, and the latter one mile per hour.

March 21.

At length the wished for change arrived, and we again beheld this morning the deep pure blue of a southern sky.  We were all eager to commence our exploration, and Mr. Usborne, ever anxious to be actively employed, was so far recovered that he induced the surgeon, though reluctantly, to allow him to again share in the duties of the survey.  He was accordingly despatched to look for a berth for the ship further to the North-West, while Captain Wickham and myself went towards Compass Hill.  We were accompanied by Mr. Bynoe, who, during our excursion, was fortunate enough to add several rare birds to his collection.

EXPLORATION OF THE BAY.

We landed in a small sandy bay at the western end of a growth of mangroves, fringing the shore behind the islands.  The sandbank fronting them we found to extend to the bay we landed in; to the westward of it there was deep water close to the shore.  Wood and water might easily be obtained in this bay, a circumstance that may give it value in the eyes of future navigators, as it did in ours.

Before ascending the hill we crossed a flat clothed with rich grass, out of which we flushed several Pheasant-cuckoos.* We found one of their nests on the ground containing four eggs, in size and colour they resembled the domestic pigeon.  The nimble manner in which these birds hop along the branches of trees, with their long tails whisking behind, give them, at the first glance, more the appearance of monkeys than birds.

(Footnote.  Centropus Phasianellus.)