We stayed there eight days; and we
did not during our voyage pass a more dull and uninteresting time.
The country, viewed from an eminence, appears a woody plain, with
here and there rounded and partly bare hills of granite protruding.
One day I went out with a party, in hopes of seeing a
kangaroo-hunt, and walked over a good many miles of country.
Everywhere we found the soil sandy, and very poor; it supported
either a coarse vegetation of thin, low brushwood and wiry grass,
or a forest of stunted trees. The scenery resembled that of the
high sandstone platform of the Blue Mountains; the Casuarina (a
tree somewhat resembling a Scotch fir) is, however, here in greater
number, and the Eucalyptus in rather less. In the open parts there
were many grass-trees,--a plant which, in appearance, has some
affinity with the palm; but, instead of being surmounted by a crown
of noble fronds, it can boast merely of a tuft of very coarse
grass-like leaves. The general bright green colour of the brushwood
and other plants, viewed from a distance, seemed to promise
fertility. A single walk, however, was enough to dispel such an
illusion; and he who thinks with me will never wish to walk again
in so uninviting a country.
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