The northern group of the Cumberland Islands are high, and appear to be better furnished with wood, and more fertile than the southern groups, particularly on their western sides.

The principal peak, in latitude 29 degrees 15 minutes 10 seconds and longitude 148 degrees 55 minutes, is fifteen hundred and eighty-four feet high, and is situated on the largest island, which is ten miles long, and from three to nine broad:  it has several bays on either side, and off its south-eastern end are four small islands:  beyond them is a range of rocky islets.  The northernmost island of this range is the extremity of the Cumberland Islands, as well as the north-eastern limit of Whitsunday Passage; it forms a high, bluff point, in latitude 20 degrees 0 minutes, and longitude 148 degrees 50 minutes 30 seconds, and is of bold approach:  on the western side of the island are some low islets.

REPULSE BAY is a deep bight:  its shores are low, but the hills rise to a great height.  The extremity of the bay was not distinctly traced, but it is probable, upon examining it, that a fresh-water rivulet may be found; and there may be a communication with Edgecumbe Bay.

The Repulse Isles are of small size; they are surrounded by rocks, which do not extend more than a quarter of a mile from them.  The summit of the largest island is in latitude 20 degrees 37 minutes 5 seconds, and longitude 148 degrees 50 minutes 30 seconds.  Variation 6 degrees 15 minutes East.

Between Capes Conway and Hillsborough the flood-tide comes from the north-eastward, but is very irregular in the direction of the stream.  At an anchorage off the island near the latter cape the tide rose twelve feet, but close to the Repulse Isles, the rise was eighteen feet.  At the former place, the moon being full, high water took place at about three-quarters past ten o’clock; by an observation the next day at the latter, it was a quarter of an hour later:  the maximum rate was about one and a half knot.

WHITSUNDAY PASSAGE, formed by the northern group of the Cumberland Islands, is from three to six miles wide, and, with the exception of a small patch or rocks within a quarter of a mile from Cape Conway, and a sandbank (that is probably dry, or nearly so at low water) off Round Head, is free from danger.  The shores appear to be bold to, and the depth, in the fairway, varies between twenty and thirty fathoms; the shoal off Round Head stretches in a North-North-West direction, but its extent was not ascertained.

In steering through the strait, particularly during the flood-tide, this shoal should be avoided by keeping well over to the east shore; for the tide there sets across the strait; it is about a mile and a half from Round Head, in which space the water is ten and fourteen fathoms deep.

Between Round Head (in latitude 20 degrees 28 minutes 30 seconds) and Cape Conway is a bay, where there appeared to be good anchorage out of the strength of the tides; and to the north of Round Head is another bay, the bottom of which is an isthmus of about a mile wide, separating it from an inlet to the westward of Cape Conway.  This bay very probably affords good anchorage out of the strength of the tides.