. Point Brace of Captain Bremer.)

The narrowest part of the strait is where the low, sandy extremity, Point
Brace, bears South 40 degrees East; the channel then is from seventeen to
eighteen fathoms deep, and shoals suddenly on its south, but gradually on
its north side: it is about a mile and a half wide.

APSLEY STRAIT is forty miles long, and from one to three broad; the
widest part being at the north end: the southern end, for five or six
miles from the outlet, is very rocky; the south entrance is in latitude
11 degrees 45 minutes; the flood sets to the southward, and the ebb, from
Van Diemen's Gulf out of Clarence Strait, runs through the strait to the
north, which must cause many shoals off the south entrance; the depth is
generally from ten to thirteen fathoms, but is very irregular towards the
south end; at low water many parts are dry, which leave the channels very
intricate. We passed over it at high water without knowing our danger,
for the stream of the tide carried us through the deepest part of the
channel.

BATHURST ISLAND is from thirty to thirty-three miles in extent, having a
circumference of a hundred and twenty miles. GORDON BAY, on its western
side, affords a good shelter in the easterly monsoon; it is ten miles
wide, and six deep, and terminated by PORT HURD, the entrance to which is
fronted by a bar, having twelve or fourteen feet on it at low water. Near
the south-western head of the bay two projecting cliffy points (Twin
Cliffs) terminate a sandy bay, from which wood and, probably, water may
be obtained.

PORT HURD, at the bottom of Gordon Bay, in latitude 11 degrees 39 minutes
30 seconds, is a mere salt-water inlet, running up in a South-East
direction for eight miles; it then separates into two creeks that wind
under each side of a wooded hill; the entrance is three-quarters of a
mile wide, and formed by two low points. At the back of the port are some
wooded hills; one of them, Mount Hurd, kept in the opening between the
two points of entrance, is the mark for the deepest part of the bar. When
within the entrance the port opens, and forms a basin two miles and a
quarter broad, after which it narrows and runs up at from half to a
quarter of a mile wide, with a channel four and five fathoms deep.

The country here is thickly wooded, but very low, excepting a few ranges
of hills that may rise to the height of two hundred feet. The south side
of Bathurst Island has no sinuosities.

Near CA