isfy myself whether the flood-tide came from the
southward, the eastward, or the northward; I inclined to the opinion
that it came from the southeast; but the first time we anchored off the
coast, which was in latitude 24 deg. 30', about ten leagues to the
south-east of Bustard Bay, I found it came from the north-west; on the
contrary, thirty leagues farther to the north-west, on the south side of
Keppel Bay, I found that it came from the east, and at the northern part
of that bay it came from the northward, but with a much slower motion
than it had come from the east: On the east side of the Bay of Inlets,
it set strongly to the westward, as far as the opening of Broad Sound;
but on the north side of that sound it came with a very slow motion from
the north-west; and when we lay at anchor before Repulse Bay, it came
from the northward: To account for its course in all this variety of
directions, we need only admit that the flood-tide comes from the east
or south-east. It is well known, that where there are deep inlets, and
large creeks into low lands running up from the sea, and not occasioned
by rivers of fresh water, there will always be a great indraught of the
flood-tide, the direction of which will be determined by the position or
direction of the coast which forms the entrance of such inlet, whatever
be its course at sea; and where the tides are weak, which upon this
coast is generally the case, a large inlet will, if I may be allowed the
expression, attract the flood-tide for many leagues.

A view of the chart will at once illustrate this position. To the
northward of Whitsunday's Passage there is no large inlet, consequently
the flood sets to the northward, or northwestward, according to the
direction of the coast, and the ebb to the south, or south-eastward, at
least such is their course at a little distance from the land, for very
near it they will be influenced by small inlets. I also observed that we
had only one high tide in twenty-four hours, which happened in the
night. The difference between the perpendicular rise of the water in the
day and the night, when there is a spring-tide, is no less than three
feet, which, where the tides are so inconsiderable as they are here, is
a great proportion of the whole difference between high and low water.
This irregularity of the tides, which is worthy of notice, we did not
discover till we were ran ashore, and perhaps farther to the northward
it is still greater. Af