28

Friday 30th [underlined] (Continued)
This was one of the discomforts we had to put up
with, the worst being the lack of a proper place to
sit, eat, sleep or write in. Anchor was let go on
our arrival off Indian Hill, about 1p.m. & after lunch
we went ashore with the object of reaching the summit of
it, & hoping to find Stoke's bottle, which he mentions
having left at the top of of this hill when taking his final
farewell of the Victoria River, on the completion of his
survey work in H.M.S. "Beagle" . The 1/2 mile or so of
plain was crossed & the ascent begun; & we found it
rougher & steeper than the hills Mr Basedow & I had scaled
in the morning. However, we all 4 reached the top &
after a spell, made search for the bottle, but without
success. The spot was found, however, where it evidently
had been placed (in 1839) & the cairn, originally built
over it was pulled down & scattered around, whether by the
natives or not we could not say. Commander Stokes made
the height of this hill 450ft, but our people made it 350'.
Some beautiful flowering shrubs & trees were met with, but
very few birds. The principle flowers include a kind of
honeysuckle on a small tree, with a narrow leaf like a
wattle; a beautiful yellow flower, which grows on a
slender-limbed tree - the leaves of which do not appear until