The night being fine, we enjoyed our bivouac upon the top of a sandhill, near the sea, by the side of a dead Pandanus, which served as firewood--although it was judged expedient to keep watch by turns, and go the rounds occasionally, especially after the setting of the moon and before daybreak.

We saw no recent signs of natives, however, during our absence from the ship; but former experience upon this coast had taught me how necessary it is to be ever on one's guard, even in apparently uninhabited places; and such watchfulness soon becomes habitual, and at length ceases to be irksome.
Next day we returned to the ship, more than ever convinced of the comparative uselessness of the country which we had gone over for agricultural or even pastoral purposes, except on a very small scale.

On our way back we met with two horses, both in good condition, which had been left by Colonel Barney's party.
GLADSTONE SETTLEMENT.
On another occasion Mr.Huxley and myself landed at the site of the settlement of Gladstone, and were picked up in the evening by Captain Stanley in one of the surveying boats, on his return to the ship.

It is difficult to conceive a more dreary spot, and yet I saw no more eligible place for a settlement on the shores of the harbour.

A few piles of bricks, the sites of the tents, some posts, indicating the remains of a provisional Government-house, wheel-ruts in the hardened clay, the stumps of felled trees, together with a goodly store of empty bottles strewed about everywhere, remained as characteristics of the first stage of Australian colonisation.