small dog.  It was always difficult to catch her, as she would generally manage to escape either between the legs or by springing over the shoulders, except when we were going on shore; then she would allow herself very quietly to be put into the boat; but on our return the difficulty was how to get her off, and it became necessary to pounce upon her suddenly.  She was never heard to bark, the only noise she ever made being the dismal howl peculiar to her breed, and this only when tied up, which consequently, for the sake of peace, was but of short duration, and always had to be done with a chain, as she would instantly bite through a rope.  Her mischievous propensity was remarkable, as she often stole into the officers’ cabin and pulled books down from the shelves, tearing the backs off and then destroying the leaves.  As an instance of her sure-footedness and activity I may mention that I have seen her leap twice her own height from the stem of the midship boat, in endeavouring to seize fowls or meat that was hung on the mainstay, always alighting on the point she sprang from.  At other times she would attempt to crawl up it like a cat, in order to steal what was there.  Her proneness to thieving was very great; I have frequently seen her eating stolen things when she would refuse what was offered her; it was never safe to take her near poultry.

GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS.

Whilst in this locality I may take the opportunity of introducing a few notes on the geological formation of the country in the neighbourhood of Swan River, furnished by Mr. Bynoe: 

The most remarkable feature is the absence or scantiness of the secondary and transition rocks; all the tertiary appears to be of the newest kind, and to lie in juxtaposition with the primary.  This character forms the sandy margin from the Darling Range, or chain of granite hills, nearly 2000 feet high to the sea, in the immediate vicinity of which the sand is bounded by a calcareous form of limestone, and, where jutting into the sea and forming perpendicular or overhanging cliffs, the faces are thrown into a beautiful kind of fretwork (See volume 1) of more compactness than the surrounding mass.  In most places about the neighbourhood of Fremantle, shells are found of the existing species along the coast, firmly impacted in its substance, particularly a large species of buccinum, as well as the strombus.  This calcareous formation has been traced as far north as Shark’s Bay; it crosses over to the Abrolhos Group, there frequently lying over a coral formation, and forming in many places cavities of a cylindrical figure, of some few feet in depth.  Beds of clays, varying in quality and colour, are to be met with on sandy margins, containing particles of gypsum.

On the Darling Range is found a red cellular structure capping the granite, assuming all the appearance of having been subjected to fire; it extends also in the low country about that neighbourhood.