t;
and thus quitted Broad Sound, steering off for the outermost and largest
of the Northumberland Islands.

There remains little to be said upon the navigation of Broad Sound, more
than what has been related of our courses in it, and what will be found
in the chart. The western channel, between the Flat Isles and the main,
is not to be recommended; but after steering up the middle of the Sound
and passing these isles, the western shore should be kept nearest a-bord.
A ship may then reach Upper Head without difficulty, and lie there in
perfect safety from all winds, at two-thirds of a mile off; but cannot go
higher up the sound without risk of grounding on the banks. From half
flood to half ebb, landing is easy at Upper Head, and it is perhaps the
sole place on the main possessing that advantage; every where else the
shore is very low, fronted with mud banks, and covered, in some places
miles deep, with interwoven mangroves, amongst which the tide flows at
high water.

The stone of Upper Head, and apparently of all the hills in its
neighbourhood, is granitic; whilst that of Long Island and West Hill
approach nearer to porphyry. At the inner entrance of Thirsty Sound the
points are mostly composed of an earth, which is not heavy, is sometimes
red, but more frequently white, or mixed; and of a consistence not harder
than ochre.

Long Island, though covered with grass and wood, is stony and incapable
of ordinary cultivation. On the main land, the low parts between the
mangroves and the hills seemed to be of a tolerably good soil; and
according to the report of some of the gentlemen, who made an excursion
at the back of Upper Head, the vallies there produce good grass and
appeared fertile. There seems, indeed, to be a considerable extent of
land about Broad Sound and on the peninsula between it and Shoal-water
Bay, which, if not calculated to give a rich return to the cultivator of
wheat, would support much cattle, and produce maize, sugar, and tobacco;
and cotton and coffee would grow upon the more rocky sides of the hills,
and probably even upon Long Island. Should it ever be in contemplation to
make an establishment in New South Wales within the tropic, in aid of
Port Jackson and the colonies to the southward, this neighbourhood would
probably be chosen; and the great rise of tide presents advantages which
might be some time turned to account in ship building. On the west side
of the sound, near the Flat Isles, the ris