Traces of natives, but not very recent, were met with in a dried-up well dug to a great depth, and several low, dome-shaped huts, and numerous fireplaces, around which remains of shellfish and turtles were profusely scattered.  Many of the heads of these last animals were here and elsewhere seen stuck upon branches of trees, sometimes a dozen together.

July 31st.

I landed this morning with Mr. Obree, on one of the Two Isles off Cape Flattery, and we were picked up by the ship in passing.  It is well-wooded, chiefly with the Mimusops kaukii, trees of which are here often sixty feet high and 3 in diameter.  Under the bark I found two new land-shells (to be described in the Appendix) one of them a flattish Helix, in prodigious numbers—­and this more than ever satisfied me that even the smallest islands and detached reefs of the north-east coast may have species peculiar to themselves, nor did I ever return from any one of the 37 upon which I landed without some acquisitions to the collection.

STAY AT LIZARD ISLAND.

We remained a fortnight at Lizard Island, at the usual anchorage, off a sandy beach on its north-western side.  Lizard Island is conspicuous from a distance, on account of its peak*—­the central part of a mountainous ridge running across the island, and dividing it into two portions, of which the eastern is hilly and the western low, and intersected by small ridges of slight elevation.  The island is about 2 1/2 miles in greatest diameter; the rock is a coarse grey granite, easily decomposable.  A large grassy plain enters westward from the central ridge—­a portion of this, half a mile from the beach, densely covered with coarse grass and reeds and scattered over with Pandanus trees, is usually a marsh.  At present it is dry, with a few pools of fresh water, connected below with a mangrove swamp opening upon the beach by a narrow creek.  Formerly boats could ascend this a little way, but now the entrance dries across at low-water—­nor could the fresh water conveniently be conducted to the beach by the hose and engine, as I had seen done in the Fly in the month of May.  Fortunately, however, we found a small stream in a valley on the northern corner of the island, which supplied our wants.

(Footnote.  Captain Stanley’s azimuth and altitude observations, taken at two stations at the base, the distance between having been measured by the micrometer, give its height as 1,161 feet; and Lieutenant Dayman’s barometrical measurement makes it 1,151 feet, above the sea level.)

Although the dry barren nature of the soil—­varying from coarse quartzose sand (from the disintegrated granite) to reddish clay—­is not favourable to the growth of luxuriant vegetation, still several interesting plants were added to the herbarium.  Of these the finest is a new Cochlospermum, a low-spreading tree, nearly leafless at this time, but covered with clusters of very large and showy golden blossoms.  A heath-like shrub (Chamaelaucium) common here, was remarkable for existing on the open plains as a weak prostrate plant, while in the scrub it formed a handsome bush 10 feet high, with a stem 6 inches in diameter.