The principal one of the group, situated to leeward of an extensive reef, is margined towards the reef by beds of coral--conglomerate, and elsewhere by a sandy beach--it is half a mile in length, composed of coral sand, the highest part not more than twelve feet above high-water mark, with several groves of low trees, and is overrun with tall sedge-like grass; the second is composed of a strip of heaped-up fragments of coral, to windward covered with bushes, and to leeward separated from the reef by a belt of mangroves; the third is a mere clump of mangroves not deserving of further notice.

The botany of an island of this class, of which there are many on the North-east coast of Australia, may serve as a specimen, as the plants are few.

Mimusops kaukii constituted the principal part of the arboreal vegetation, Clerodendrum inerme and Premna obtusifolia form low straggling thickets--scattered bushes of Suriana maritima and Pemphis acida fringe the sandy margin of the island, and behind these the beautiful Josephinia grandiflora, a large white-flowered Calyptranthus, Vitex ovata and a Tribulus creep along the sand, or spread out their procumbent branches.
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.