was found to be a spring among rocks in a dense calamus scrub.  It waters a fine valley running nearly east and west behind the range of hills to the southward of Evans Bay, and its line is marked by a belt of tangled brush exceeding in luxuriance anything of the same description which I had seen elsewhere.  The variety of trees in this dense brush is very great, and many were quite new to me.  The Seaforthia palm attained the height of 60 to 80 feet, and the rattan was very abundant, and from the recurved prickles catching and tearing the clothes, it was often no easy matter to penetrate the thickets.  Among the plants along the river the most interesting is an indigenous species of banana or plantain, probably the same as that found at Endeavour River during Cook’s first voyage.  The fruit is of small size with numerous hard seeds and a small quantity of delicious pulp; cultivation would, doubtless, wonderfully improve it.  Another remarkable plant found on the grassy borders of the jungle and characteristic of rich damp soil is a beautiful species of Roscoea (?) (one of the Scitamineae or ginger family) about a foot high, with a solitary leaf and large bracteae, the lower green and the upper ones pink, partially concealing handsome yellow flowers.  From its succulent nature I failed in preparing specimens for the herbarium, but some roots were preserved and given to the Botanical Garden at Sydney.

THE VALLEY OF THE MEW.

The lower part of the valley is open forest land, or nearly level and thinly wooded country covered with tall coarse grass.  Further up it becomes more beautiful.  From the belt of wood, concealing the windings of the river, grassy sloping meadows extend upwards on each side to the flanking ridges which are covered with dense scrub occasionally extending in straggling patches down to the water, and forming a kind of imperfect natural fence.  The soil of these meadows is rich sandy loam, affording great apparent facilities for cultivation from their proximity to what is probably a never-failing supply of fresh water.  Here, at the end of the dry season, and before the periodical rains had fairly set in, we found the stream at halfway up to be about six feet in average breadth, slowly running over a shallow, gravelly, or earthy bed, with occasional pools from two to four feet in depth.

PROPOSED SETTLEMENT AT CAPE YORK.

I have alluded to this subject at greater length than under ordinary circumstances I would have done, in the belief that, should a settlement ever be established at Cape York, the strip of good land that runs along the upper part of Mew River may hereafter be turned to good account.  Several other valleys watered by small and apparently permanent streams were discovered by our shooting parties, chiefly by Wilcox and the sergeant of marines; these were afterwards visited by me, and my opinion of the productiveness of the country about Cape York almost daily became more and more favourable the further I extended my excursions.