136 degrees 52
minutes. Though embracing a considerable area, the character of the
Peninsula is unfavourable to the growth of nutritive herbage; the surface
soil is a species of calcareous limestone, the rock formation of a
tertiary description, although, at the lower extremity, granite and trap
rock are known to exist. The surface of the country is undulating,
covered in many places by scrub, and the trees being very short-lived,
the whole is matted with dead timber, and difficult of access. A
deficiency of water renders York Peninsula still more unfavourable for
location; nevertheless, several sections of land have been purchased on
that part which is immediately opposite to Port Adelaide, and it is said
that indications of copper have been found there, a fact I should be
inclined to doubt. In 1840, a company applied for a special survey on the
shores of the Peninsula to the southward of Point Pearce, and gave the
name of Victoria Harbour to the locality; but the survey was subsequently
abandoned in consequence of the unfavourable character of the interior,
from the great deficiency of water.
If we except the results of a survey made by the late Lieut.-Governor,
Colonel Robe, of the upper part of Spencer's Gulf, during which, as is
the case in the same part of the neighbouring gulf, his Excellency found
convenient bays and inlets, but little is known of the eastern shore of
that splendid gulf, beyond this point.
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