between
3 and 4 Leagues out at Sea.* (* Duke Islands.) Over each of the Points
that form the Entrance is a pretty high, round Hill; that on the
North-West is a Peninsula, surrounded by the Sea at high water; the
distance from the one to the other is about 2 Miles bold to both Shores.
Here is good Anchoring in 7, 6, 5, and 4 fathoms water, and very
Convenient places for laying a Ship ashore, where at Spring Tides the
tides doth not rise less than 16 or 18 feet, and flows at full and Change
of the Moon about 11 o'Clock. We met with no fresh water, or any other
kind of refreshments whatever; we saw 2 Turtle, but caught none, nor no
sort of Fish or wild fowl, except a few small land birds. Here are the
same sort of Water Fowl as we saw in Botany Bay, and like them, so shy
that it is hardly possible to get within shott of them. No signs of
Fertility is to be seen upon the Land; the Soil of the up lands is mostly
a hard, redish Clay, and produceth several sorts of Trees, such as we
have seen before, and some others, and clear of all underwoods. All the
low lands are mostly overrun with Mangroves, and at Spring tides
overflow'd by the Sea; and I believe in the rainy Seasons here are large
land floods, as we saw in many places Gullies, which seem'd to have been
made by torrents of Water coming from the Adjacent hills, besides other
Visible signs of the Water having been a Considerable height above the
Common Spring Tides. Dr. Solander and I was upon a rising Ground up the
inlet, which we thought had at one time or another been overflow'd by the
Sea, and if so great part of the Country must at that time been laid
under Water. Up in the lakes, or lagoons, I suppose, are shell fish, on
which the few Natives subsist. We found Oysters sticking to most of the
Rocks upon the Shore, which were so small, as not to be worth the picking
off.* (* Cook was very unfortunate in his landing here. The channel is at
the end of a long headland between two bays, Shoalwater Bay and Broad
Sound, and was a very unlikely place either to find water or get any true
idea of the country.)

Thursday, 31st. Winds Southerly and South-East; Dark, Hazey weather, with
rain. In the P.M., finding no one inducement to stay longer in this
place, we at 6 a.m. Weighed and put to Sea, and stood to the North-West,
having the Advantage of a fresh breeze at South-South-East. We keept
without the Group of Islands which lay in Shore, and to the North-West of
Thirsty Sound,