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The North Coast.
43

DeGrey, limiting the area of the pastoral land; but Mr. Cowle saw splendid country to the South, and there is good land in patches on the DeGrey and its affluent, the Oakover; but the valley of the Strelly is closed in by granite ranges, with volcanic ridges appearing through them (F. H. Gregory), and similar rocky hills limit the valley of the Shaw to the West. On the Sherlock the sandstone hills rise in bold bluffs 300 feet above the pools of permanent water, and sandstone forms the surface of the spinifex district towards the East. Throughout this district scattered trees are found on the plains, and white gums in many of the river valleys, as well as about the sources of the Sherlock. The long low coastline is broken, near the centre, by the promontory which forms Nickol Bay and its adjacent islands; but neither Cossack, on its South-Eastern side, nor Tien Tsin, beyond Cape Lambert, its Eastern boundary, afford good accommodation for trade. Port Robinson has, however, been recently opened in Hampton Sound to the West; it is protected by Enderby and other islands to the North, and is accessible by Mermaid Passage, between them and the Legendre islands, to the North-West of Nickol Bay. Beyond Cape Latouche Treville, to which the plains of spinifex extend, the face of the country changes its character, presenting an aspect totally different from that of any other part of the Colony. The coast becomes rocky; the points and headlands are extended in numerous islands, of which also there are many outlying the coast, which is indented with bays and harbors throughout its entire length, many of the first class, with deep water close to the shore. Beyond Cape Leveque, King Sound opens to the South-East, and is about 90 miles in depth by 25 in greatest breadth, and, further Eastward, Prince Regent's River and many other narrow but deep inlets, with