early three miles. On the eastern side
of Lacrosse Island, within half a mile of the point, we had seven
fathoms, and there was every appearance of the channel being deep in the
neighbourhood of Cape Domett. Shakspeare Hill, the situation of which is
in latitude 14 degrees 47 minutes 55 seconds, and longitude 128 degrees
24 minutes, is a conspicuous object on this promontory: it is high and
rocky, and, at a distance, has the appearance of being insulated, like
Lacrosse Island.

Having entered the gulf, it trends to the South-South-West for
twenty-three miles to Adolphus Island, where it is divided into two arms,
of which the westernmost is the principal. At ten miles from Lacrosse
Island, the channel is narrowed by shoals to a width of five miles, the
shores being twelve miles apart. The land on the western side of the gulf
is high and rocky; but the opposite shore is very low, and apparently
marshy. The bottom is of sand, as are the banks on either side, and
affords good anchorage: the tide stream runs with great strength in
mid-channel, but is easily avoided by anchoring upon the weather shore
near the edge of the bank.

The channels on either side of Adolphus Island are called the East and
West Arms. The East Arm is from one to two miles and a half wide, and
four or five fathoms deep. At ten miles it is joined by an arm that
washes the south side of Adolphus Island, and the united streams trend
together in a South-East direction, under the foot of Mount Connexion,
for a considerable distance. This inlet was not examined. The West Arm
extends down the west side of Adolphus Island for seven miles; it is then
divided by a projecting point under View Hill; and, whilst one runs to
the eastward and unites with the East Arm, the other continues to trend
to the southward, and then opens out to an extensive basin eleven miles
in length, and from four to six in breadth; and, at seven miles,
gradually contracts as it winds under the base of the Bastion Hills:
before, however, you arrive at the basin, the stream is divided by
several islands and rocky islets, that narrow the channel in some parts
to the width of half a mile, in which the depth is very great, and the
tide runs with great strength.

At the entrance of the basin the high rocky character of the west shore
is superseded by low mangrove banks, with here and there a detached hill
rising from a plain of low marshy land, that, at the time of our visit,
was covered wit