tug, there would be less difficulty and danger in loading to 18
feet than there now is to 15.

"There is now three feet more water on the bar than there was previous to
its being deepened, and if the work be continued next summer, to enlarge
a cut which has been made, there will be five feet.

"I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,

"THOMAS LIPSON, Harbour Master.
"The Honourable Colonial Secretary."

It is not clear to me, however, that the admission of larger class
shipping into the Port will be of any great advantage. I am led to
believe that ships of smaller tonnage than those drawing 16 to 17 feet,
have been found to be most convenient for the ordinary purposes of
commerce. However, it is evident, that if Captain Lipson continues the
same praiseworthy exertions he has hitherto used, he will deepen the bar
for vessels of any tonnage. Under existing circumstances, it may be as
well to state that any ship arriving off the bar when there is not
sufficient water on it for them to enter the port, will find good
anchorage all round the lightship, particularly a little to the westward
of it. The whole Gulf, indeed, from this point, may be considered as a
safe and extensive roadstead. As regards Port Adelaide itself, I cannot
imagine a securer or a more convenient harbour. Without having any broad
expanse of water, it is of sufficient width for vessels to lie there in
perfect safety, whether as regards the wind or the anchorage.

The head of St. Vincent's Gulf is in latitude 34 1/2 degrees. Between
that point and Port Adelaide, the shore is either lined by mangroves, or
is low and sandy. There are, nevertheless, several inlets similar to, but
much smaller than Port Adelaide, and other commodious anchorages for
small craft along it. The principal of these is the inlet connected with
the Gawler, of which I shall hereafter speak. York Peninsula forms the
western shore of St. Vincent's Gulf, and separates it from that of
Spencer. It is a long, low tongue of land--Cape Spencer, its southern
extremity, being in 35 degrees 17 minutes, and in long. 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,
covere