On several occasions I landed on Albany Island, and walked over the place.  It is three miles in length, and one in greatest breadth, its outline irregular from the number of bays and small rocky headlands.  On its western side the bays are small, and the shores generally steep and rocky, with sandy intervals, the banks being covered with brush of the usual Australian intertropical character.  The rock here is either a stratum of ironstone in irregular masses and nodules cemented together by a ferruginous base, or a very coarse sandstone, almost a quartzose conglomerate, forming cliffs, occasionally thirty feet or more in height.  The latter stone is suitable for rough building purposes, such as the construction of a pier, but is much acted on by the weather.  On the northern and eastern sides the bays are large and generally sandy, with the land sloping down towards them from the low undulating hills, which compose the rest of the island.  These hills are either sandy or covered with ironstone gravel* over red clay.  They are thinly covered with a sprinkling of Grevillea, Boronia, and Leucopogon bushes, with occasional tufts of the coarsest grass.  There must always be, however, sufficient pasturage for such cattle and sheep as a small party in charge of a coaling depot would require.  There is also sufficient water in the island for their support, and by digging wells, no doubt the quantity would be greatly increased.  In addition there are several small spots where the soil is suitable for gardening purposes, thus ensuring a supply of vegetables during the greater part, perhaps the whole of the year.

(Footnote.  A sample of this ironstone picked up from the surface has furnished materials for the following remarks, for which I am indebted to the politeness of Warrington W. Smyth, Esquire, of the Museum of Practical Geology.

On examining the specimens which you presented to our Museum, I see that they consist for the most part of the red or anhydrous peroxide of iron—­similar in chemical character to the celebrated haematite ore of Ulverstone and Whitehaven.  It is, however, less rich in iron than would be inferred from its outward appearance, since the pebbles on being broken, exhibit interiorly a loose and cellular structure, where grains of quartz and plates of mica are interspersed with the ore, and of course reduce its specific gravity and value.

Such an ore, if occurring in great quantity, and at no great distance from abundant fuel and from a supply of limestone for flux, may prove to be very valuable; but I should fear that your suggestion of employing the coral and shells of the coast, for the last-mentioned purpose, might impair the quality of an iron thus produced, for the phosphoric acid present in them would give one of the constituents most troublesome to the iron-master, who wishes to produce a strong and tough iron.)

SAIL FROM CAPE YORK.