with scrub and stunted timber, similar to the shores of this bay. The view from the summit of the mountain on which we stood, at an elevation of about 800 or 1000 feet, is something grand and magnificent; a prospect so rude and craggy I have never met with. The summit of the mountains consists of nothing but rocks, that are totally barren and naked, and are thrown up in every possible variety of shape and ruggedness. There are chasms and perpendicular precipices, hundreds of feet deep, down which it is fearful to look; and looking from these to the sea, which is visible all round, gives a beautiful relief to the eye. I have an outline sketch of the group. We were seven hours out. The travelling on the top of the mountains was very good, as all the springs and soft places were frozen over. In coming back I caught a bird something like a water-hen. Barometer, 30⋅20; thermometer, 32°.
Sunday, June 26, 1864.—I closed my note of last Monday without furnishing the details of Sunday's excursion. The mountain which we went on to we have, ever since we had the misfortune to come here, distinguished by the name of the Giant's Tomb. Its summit, when seen from the bay, bears a very striking resemblance to an immense coffin; and since I have been to it, I find that it will bear the same appearance from the offing on the eastern and N.E. sides of the island. On arriving there, we found this apparent coffin to be a solid wall or ridge of rock, about 100 yards long and 20 feet thick, running in a N.W. and S.E. direction; on the S.W. side about 20 feet high, and on the N.E. side not less than 45 feet high. In its S.E. end, which overlooks a valley, is a large cavern. This valley is about a mile long, and appears not to be more than 200 yards wide. It is bounded on both sides by precipitous rocks, rising to a height of from 600 to 800 feet. Its head is bounded by a semi-circle of the same precipitous nature, but rising to the height of about 1,000 feet; and at the summit is the before-mentioned cave, into which we managed to get, though not without exposing ourselves to
