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Bass, appear to consist of two kinds,
perfectly dissimilar in figure, and most probably of very unequal ages,
but alike in the materials of which they are formed. Both kinds are of
granite; but the one is low, and rather level, with a soil of sand
covered with low brush and tufted grass: the other is remarkably high,
bold, and rocky, and cut into a variety of singular peaks and knobs. Some
little vegetable soil lies upon these, and the vegetation is large; trees
even of a tolerable size are produced in some places. There are attached
to some parts of these high islands slips of low sandy land, of a similar
height with the lower islands, and probably coeval with them.
Preservation Island, which takes its respectable name from having
preserved the crew of the ship _Sydney Cove_, arranges itself in the
humble class of islands, and is of a very moderate height. A surface of
sand, varying in depth, and mixed in different scanty proportions with
vegetable soil, scarcely hides from view the base, which is of granite.


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