180
Ascending this hill, we had proceeded about two or three miles, when the blue gum became occasionally interspersed, and I perceived through the trees on the left hand what appeared an open space; concluding that I had nearly reached the summit of the hill, I made for this in order to obtain a prospect of the country I had passed. We now entered a large grass-tree plain, from which we had a more extensive view than I had before obtained from any height in this country; so blue and even did the horizon appear, that it was some time before I could persuade the men that it was not the sea. The range of hills we were on seemed to stretch north and south, and before I was on it, I never saw so large an assemblage of the white gum. Both the freshness of the wind and the leaning of the trees on the right of the plain from the west, convinced me that the sea was at hand, though we could hear nothing of it; nor did these indications deceive me, for, on passing another small thicket, having about the level of the top of the hills, we saw before us the vast expanse of ocean about a mile and a half distant; from a high hill on the shore we saw Cape Leeuwin, bearing S S.W., the cliff overhanging Turnerian stream S. We supposed we might have come over the land we had passed in a straight line, and without impediment of bush or swamps in a much shorter time, judging the distance to be about ten miles.
I have now conducted you to the sea; we reached this at a quarter to eight, on the morning after we left Augusta; having left our night berth rather upwards of half an nour; I might have done it easily overnight, but I did not think myself so safe.
The hills I had lately left stretched apparently to
