we afterwards heard
at Port Essington that Malay proas occasionally visit the southern shores
of the Gulf, and fill fresh water from alongside, some distance off the
land. If we receive this statement as correct, we must suppose that at
certain seasons the discharge from the various inlets and rivers we
discovered is sufficiently powerful to force back the great body of
seawater, as is the case at the embouchures of many large rivers.

(*Footnote. As the reader will perceive by a glance at the chart
accompanying this work.)

The general appearance of the head of the Gulf is that of a low mangrove
shore, between ten and thirty feet high, over which the interior is not
visible from the offing.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE CLIMATE AND WINDS IN THE GULF.

During our visit to this part of the continent we found the climate well
suited for Europeans; but what it might be in the middle of the
north-west monsoon we had no opportunity of ascertaining. At its
commencement in the month of November, Flinders found the thermometer to
range on board between 81 and 90 degrees; but on shore, he says, that in
the course of the day it might have been about seven degrees higher; the
temperature, however, being alleviated by constant breezes either from
sea or land, it was seldom oppressive. In July, as I have already stated,
the thermometer, on one occasion, at 5 A.M., was down to 51 degrees; and
on another, at noon, up to 87 degrees, being, in the first instance, six
degrees lower than it was on board, and in the second, seven degrees
higher, which gave an excess in the shore range of thirteen degrees.
Generally on the land it was below 62 degrees before 7 A.M. and after 6
P.M. The range of the barometer in November was from 29.70 to 30.06;
whilst with us, in July, its maximum height was 30.08, and minimum 30.02;
the lowest being in both seasons with winds from the land, coinciding
with what had been observed on other parts of the continent, that winds
from the sea raise the mercury, and those from the land depress it.

The winds in July were fresh from South to South-East for about two days
before and after the change in the moon. They began at midnight,
increasing to almost a strong breeze between five and six in the morning,
and dying away again towards noon, when a calm of five hours duration
succeeded; at other times light land and seabreezes prevailed.

It will appear from this description of the winds in the Gulf of
Carpentaria that