(Footnote.  This tree was also observed on this part of the continent by Captain King, who met with it both at Cambridge Gulf and Careening Bay, and describes it as follows:  Mr. Cunningham was fortunate in finding the fruit of the tree that was first seen by us at Cambridge Gulf, and had for some time puzzled us from its immense size and peculiar appearance.  It proved to be a tree of the Natural Order Capparides, and was thought to be a Capparis; the gouty habit of the stem, which was soft and spongy, gave it an appearance of disease; but as all the specimens, from the youngest plant to the full-grown tree, possessed the same deformed appearance, it was evidently the peculiarity of its habit.  The stem of the largest of these trees measured twenty-nine feet in girt, whilst its height did not exceed twenty-five feet.  It bore some resemblance to the Adansonia figured in the account of Captain Tuckey’s expedition to Congo.  King’s Australia volume 1 page 423.)

Singular pieces of sandstone.

I this day again remarked a circumstance which had before this period elicited my attention; which was that we occasionally found fixed in the boughs of trees, at a considerable height from the ground, pieces of sandstone, nearly circular in form, about an inch and a half in thickness, and from four to five in diameter, so that they resembled small millstones.  What was the object in thus fashioning and placing these stones I never could conceive, for they were generally in the least remarkable spots:  they cannot point out burial places, for I have made such minute searches that in such a case I must have found some of the bones; neither can they indicate any peculiar route through the country, for two never occur near one another.

Preparation to build A boat.

On my return to the camp I found that the schooner had not yet arrived; I now began to fear that some accident had occurred, and made my preparations accordingly.  The party was fully prepared to meet such a misfortune and, as we had the means of constructing a boat large enough to take us to Swan River, I felt more anxious for the safety of those in the vessel than for our own.  That no time however might be lost I examined the neighbourhood of the encampment and found that within our immediate vicinity were plenty of trees well adapted for the purpose, which I marked, and had some of them felled.

CHAPTER 7.  HANOVER BAY AND ITS VICINITY.

Occupation at the camp.