for our purpose.

There were many recent traces of natives on the shore; and after
returning to the sloop, we saw, on the opposite side of the arm a man who
employed or amused himself by setting fire to the grass in different
places. He did not stay to receive us, and we rowed down to Middle Island
where a smoke was rising. The natives shunned us there also; for soon
after landing, I saw three of them walk up from the shoal which joins
Middle Island to the opposite low, sandy point. The party appeared to
consist of a man, a woman, and a boy; and the two first had something
wrapped round them which resembled cloaks of skins.

The gently-sloping hills of Middle Island afford about forty acres of
pasture land, well covered with grass, and thinly wooded. No fresh water
was seen, but it might probably be obtained by digging. This island is
little frequented by aquatic birds, from the circumstance of its being
accessible, at low water, to the inhabitants of the main.

Nov. 7. Mr. Bass and myself landed on the south shore upon our respective
pursuits. The sandy point at the back of Middle Island was particularly
favourable to the survey; and a base of sixty-six chains measured round
it, with the concomitant angles, enabled me to connect the eastern arm
with the basin. The sloop had been completed with water in the morning,
and was ready to proceed in continuation of the voyage; but the width of
the arm, the depth of water in it, and strength of the tides, were too
strong indications of a river of extensive course for me to be able to
quit it without some further examination.

(Atlas, Pl. VII.)

A rainy gale from the eastward did not allow of moving until Nov. 9th; we
then got under way with the flood tide, and beat up the first, or _Long
Reach_, against a south-east wind. Abreast of _Point Rapid_ (see the
chart), where the river turned sharp round to the south-west, I went away
in the boat to examine the upper end of Long Reach; but the haste
required in following after the sloop, which the tide assisted in driving
fast upward, allowed me to do it but very cursorily. In _Crooked Reach_,
I stopped at two places, and measured a short base near _Glen Bight_. The
sloop was then lost to view, although the wind had died away; and on
reaching _Brush Island_, it was not easy to know which way she had taken,
_Round-head Bay_ having as much the appearance of being a continuation of
the river, as had _Whirlpool Reach_. This reach st