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From what was seen of it in the sloop, it could only
be conjectured that these two were separate islands; but Mr. Bishop had
passed in the _Nautilus_ through the channel that divides them.
Mr. Bass did not land upon the large island, and it is only of the
southern end of Cape Barren Island that he could speak from his own
particular observation.
This island is one of those of the higher kind that consist of both high
and low land. The high part is composed of granite, in many places almost
bare, in others poorly clothed with moderate sized gum trees, which draw
their support through some small quantity of vegetable earth lodged by
the broken blocks and fragments of the stone, and some straggling
brush-wood shooting up round the trees, and completing the appearance of
a continued vegetation.
The base of the low part is granite; its surface chiefly sand; its
produce, variety of brush, with some few small gum trees, and a species
of fir, that grows tall and straight to the height of 20 or 25 feet.


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