Our Island! What was it when we came into possession? From the sea,
merely a range displaying the varied leafage of jungle and forest. A
steep headland springing from a ledge of rock on the north, and a broad,
embayed-based flat converging into an obtruding sand-spit to the west,
enclose a bay scarcely half a mile from one horn to the other, the sheet
of water almost a perfect crescent, with the rocky islet of Purtaboi,
plumed with trees, to indicate the circumference of a circle. Trees come
to the water's edge from the abutment of the bold eminence. Dome-shaped
shrubs of glossy green (native cabbage--SCAEVOLA KOENIGII), with groups
of pandanus palms bearing massive orange-coloured fruits; and here and
there graceful umbrella trees, with deep-red decorations, hibiscus bushes
hung with yellow funnells, and a thin line of ever-sighing beech oaks
(CASUARINA) fringe the clean untrodden sand. Behind is the vistaless
forest of the flat.

Run the boat on the sand at high-water, and the first step is planted in
primitive bush--fragrant, clean and undefiled. An empty jam tin or a
broken bottle, spoors of the rude hoofs of civilisation, you might search
for in vain. As difficult would it be to find either as a fellow to the
nugget of gold which legend tells was used by a naked black as a sinker
when he fished with hook of pearl shell out there on the edge of the
coral reef,

One superficial feature of our domain is distinct and peculiar, giving to
it an admirable character. From the landing-place--rather more up towards
the north-east cusp than the exact middle of the crescent bay--extends a
flat of black sand on which grows a dense bush of wattles, cockatoo
apple-trees, pandanus palms, Moreton Bay ash and other eucalypts, and the
shapely melaleuca. This flat, here about 150 yards in breadth, ends
abruptly at a steep bank which gives access to a plateau 60 feet above