When the first rays of the sun saw us struggling over the huge masses of rock of which they are composed.  The view itself differed but little from that obtained yesterday, except that the islands are yet more numerous, the mainland more frequently indented with bays varying from two to five miles in width, and invariably trending in the same East-South-East direction.  The long and narrow islands which these bays contained generally subsided to the South-South-West.  I was fully occupied in sketching the surrounding objects from this station, till the tide had risen sufficient for us to pass the channel.  After a late breakfast we again bore away to the North-East under a double-reefed sail, as the sky wore a threatening appearance.  After clearing the channel we crossed a bay about two miles wide and four deep, thickly studded with small islands.  At noon being near the north point of it, I landed in order to secure a latitude, and at the same time a round of angles.  Having the flood tide against us, we had only made five miles in a North by East direction from last night’s bivouac.

NATIVE FIRES.

Here for the first time since leaving the Fitzroy we saw native fires.  One of them was upon an island eight or nine miles from the main, between which, however, a chain of smaller ones formed links of communication.  These signs of inhabitants gave us hopes of finding some improvement from the almost utter sterility that had hitherto prevailed among these scattered islands.  We had as yet seen no traces of either canoes or rafts, and therefore were not a little curious to see what mode of conveyance the natives of these parts used.  We soon again moved onwards in a north by east direction, across another large bay, which, similar to the last, contained many islets.  It was with great reluctance we pursued this northerly course, as I hoped ere this to have found an opening leading to the coast near Collier Bay; but the result of this day’s progress fully satisfied me of the improbability of any such existing.

REMARKABLE HEADLAND.

The north point of this bay forms a most remarkable headland, rising abruptly from the water to an elevation of 400 feet.  Its cliffy face presented a grey and aged appearance, which together with the strange column-shaped rocks, scattered over its level summit, gave it the appearance of an ancient turreted fortress.  Here I first noticed a change in the strata; hitherto it had been invariably west-north-west, while from this point, as far as our subsequent experience enabled us to decide, it was west.  I may be pardoned for noticing by way of a momentary digression that all the rocks hitherto seen on this part of the coast precisely resemble the group forming the western side of Sunday Strait; the inclination and direction of the strata are identical; while an examination of all the high rocky portions of this archipelago will satisfy the geologist that they belong to the same