Volume I Part 9 (2/2)
ANTHILLS
But what, perhaps,size of the anthills, or nests I ht of which was 13 feet, and width at the base 7 feet; froradually to the apex They are composed of a pale red earth; but how it is sufficiently tempered, I am unable to state; certain is it, that it has almost the consistence of mortar, and will bear the tread of aover the shi+p's side was not less successful than hauling the seine; though quite a different kind of fish was taken to reward the labour of the saltwater Waltonians, who devoted thee fish, in shape like a brea teeth
February 6
Wea little way into the interior, and got sevenwore a green and htful appearance; but the reader etation had just been forced by heavy rains upon a light, heated soil, and also recollect that to one who has been pent up for some tihtful
NATIVE FIRES
The country was more open in character than I had before noticed it, and the numerous traces of native fires which we found in the course of the excursion, see dry seasons it not unfrequently happens, that an immense tract of land is desolated with fire, con or carelessness of the natives, to the dry herbage on the surface The moment the flame has been kindled it only waits for the first breath of air to spread it far and wide: then on the wings of the wind, the fiery teh the vast plains and prairies: bushwood and herbage--the dry grass--the tall reed--the twining parasite--or the giant of the forest, charred and blackened, but still proudly erect--alike attest and bewail the conquering fire's onward march; and the bleak desert, silent, waste, and lifeless, which it leaves behind seems forever doomed to desolation: vain fear! the rain descends once more upon the dry and thirsty soil, and from that very hour which seemed the date of cureless ruin, Nature puts forth her wondrous poith increased effort, and again her green and flower-embroidered mantle decks the earth with a new beauty!
SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS
The soil of the extensive plain over which we journeyed this day, was light and sandy in character, but the large aetable matter which it contains, and the effect of the late rains, which had penetrated some 24 or 30 inches into it, made us perhaps soradually before us until it reached an elevation of 180 feet above the level of the sea, and was covered with a long, thin grass, through which the startled kangaroopace
The face of the country ell but not too closely covered with specium, and paperbark tree, and several others The tiu brilliant lizards darted down frohs, so rapid in their fearful escape, that they caught the eyeforms We flushed in the course of the day a white bird, or at least nearly so, with a black ring round the neck, and a bill crooked like the ibis, which bird indeed, except in colour, it more resembles than any I have ever seen
(Footnote Since ascertained to be an Ibis--the Threskiornis strictipennis)
A the trees seen in the course of this raotten to mention one which struck me more than any other from its resemblance to a kind of cotton tree, used by the natives of the South Sea islands in building their canoes
February 7
The day folloe secured several boat-loads of rainwater, deposited in the holes of the rocks, near our temporary observatory, and were the better pleased with our success, as our well-digging had proved unsuccessful
GEOLOGY OF THE CLIFFS
There was soical formation of the cliffs that form the western side of this bay: and which rise fro aular masses of the same white sandstone as that which forms the cliffs themselves, and froularity and confusion around, appears to have been violently separated by soreatcliff and ruined blocks beneath, are strangely pierced with a vein or tube of vitreous matter, not less in some instances than 18 inches in diameter In every place the spot at which this tube entered the rock was indicated by a considerable extent of glazed or smelted surface; but I ay to offer any specific theory to account for the appearances I have described: the cliffs were rent and cracked in a thousand different ways, and taking into consideration their strange and wrecked appearance, together with the fact that lightning is known to vitrify sand, ency by which these results have been produced?
(Footnote Since this ritten, I have consulted my friend, Mr
Darho has kindly exaht away He pronounces it ”a superficial highly ferrugineous sandstone, with concretionary veins and aggregations” The reader should, however, consult Mr Darwin's work on the Geology of Volcanic Islands page 143)
WEIGH AND GRAZE ON A ROCK
February 10
The weather was thick and gloo co favourable, it was resolved to get underweigh without further loss of tirazed a sunken rock, of the existence of which, though we had sounded the bay, we had been, till that norance! He only who has felt the ally doomed shi+p at that fearful ratitude we hailed our escape from the treacherous foe