attempt was made to visit the shore, which was fronted for
the distance of a mile by a bank of soft mud. We could therefore gain no
information respecting the interior; but from the numerous fires, it
appeared to be thickly inhabited. It was here that we first observed the
singular phenomenon of the tides ebbing and flowing twelve hours.

GULF OF CARPENTARIA.

Next day the coast was examined for fifteen miles to the southward; its
general character has already been given, which renders it unnecessary to
dilate further here. North-east winds now forced us away from the land,
and we did not see it again till the morning of the 3rd; when, finding as
much as four fathoms within two miles and a half of a projection, we
named it, in consequence, Bold Point. It is in latitude 17 degrees 0
minutes South, longitude 8 degrees 48 minutes East of Port Essington, and
is rendered conspicuous by two clumps of trees. North 23 degrees West two
miles from Bold Point, we observed an opening, and after anchoring the
ship as near the entrance as possible, I left with the whaleboats,
accompanied by Messrs. Forsyth, Fitzmaurice, and Tarrant, to examine it,
early in the afternoon. The view annexed, taken by Lieutenant Gore, just
after the boats had shoved off, will give the reader an excellent idea of
the appearance of the south-eastern shore of the Gulf of Carpentaria,
from a distance of only two miles. In this view, a gull, resting on the
back of a sleeping turtle, will attract the attention of the reader.

Proceeding, we crossed the bar, extending three quarters of a mile off
the mouth of the inlet, on which we found only two feet at low-water. The
coast on each side was sandy, with clumps of trees, and to the northward
was fronted by an extensive flat of sand. The first reaches of the inlet
promised well, having a depth of from 1 1/2 to 3 fathoms, and a width of
from two to three hundred yards; but it ultimately became much narrower,
and so torturous that, after following its windings for twenty-seven
miles, we had only advanced eight miles in a South 60 degrees East
direction from the entrance. It then divided--one branch trending south,
and the other east; and each being only fifteen yards wide and two feet
deep, the water quite salt, and the mangroves on either side, moreover,
almost meeting, rendered it impossible to proceed further. Our hopes had
been buoyed up as we advanced, an impression prevailing that we had
discovered a river,