POINT SMITH is in latitude 11 degrees 6 minutes 45 seconds, and longitude 132 degrees 12 minutes 30 seconds.

VASHON HEAD has a considerable shoal projecting from it, and extending into the bay to the westward which was called TREPANG BAY.  This bay has an opening at the bottom, that appeared to be shoal.  A small sandy island lies at the distance of a mile and three-quarters from the shore; the reef projects into the sea for nearly a mile farther, and apparently extends to the South-West to the north head of POPHAM BAY, which has a small opening at the bottom, but of shoal approach; good anchorage may be had in Popham Bay in five and six fathoms, a little within the heads, and as they bear North and South-South-West, it is well sheltered in the easterly monsoon.  Hence to CAPE DON is three miles and a half.  The latter cape is in latitude 11 degrees 19 minutes 30 seconds, and longitude 131 degrees 45 minutes 30 seconds.

VAN DIEMEN’S GULF is seventy miles deep, and more than forty broad.  It has two outlets to sea; the one to the northward, DUNDAS STRAIT, is sixteen miles wide and very deep; the other, CLARENCE STRAIT, is seventeen miles wide, and communicates with the sea round the south sides of Melville and Bathurst Islands:  it is probably not so safe as Dundas’ Strait, on account of Vernon’s Isles, which lie in mid channel, near its western end.

The north eastern side of Van Diemen’s Gulf washes the south side of Coburg Peninsula.  It has several bays, and, to the eastward of MOUNTS BEDWELL and Roe, the shore is fronted by SIR GEORGE HOPE’S ISLANDS, forming a channel or port within them twenty miles deep and from three to six broad; the entrance to it is round the north end of GREENHILL ISLAND, which is separated from the land of the peninsula, by a strait a mile and a half wide:  the depth in mid-channel, for the shore on either side for half a mile is shoal and rocky, is eighteen fathoms, and within it the bottom is six, seven, and eight fathoms deep, and principally of mud.  This strait is in latitude 11 degrees 35 minutes.

The eastern side has several openings in it, but the shores are very low, and of shoal approach.  At its south-east end are the two (and probably three) Alligator Rivers; the westernmost (or centre) is fronted by FIELD ISLAND, the centre of which is in 12 degrees 6 minutes latitude, and 132 degrees 25 minutes 10 seconds longitude.  These rivers have been described in the narrative.  See volume 1.  The bottom of the gulf is very low, and forms two bights, separated by a point that projects for seven or eight miles.

In the neighbourhood of the rivers the country is sprinkled with wooded hills, that extend in a straggling chain towards Wellington Range, of which they might be considered a part:  but between the rivers and Clarence Strait the country is low and flat, and only protected from inroads of the sea by a barrier of sandhills, beyond which not a vestige of the interior could be seen.