A creek, ten miles from Point Torment, afforded us shelter for the night, which was again wet and squally.

March 14.

At daybreak the blue vault above was still disfigured by dark inky blotches of clouds.  We reached the ship before breakfast, and found that Mr. Helpman and Mr. Keys had ascertained that the opening on the north-east side of Point Torment was a great bay, extending ten miles in a south-easterly direction, with a width of the same distance:  its shores throughout were fringed with mangroves, through which the tide found its way, inundating many miles of the interior at high-water.

STOKES’S BAY.

In the north and south corners of the depths of this bay they found an inlet, each being about three miles deep; narrow, sandy ridges, almost dry at low-water, trending to the North-West, and separated by channels from three to four fathoms, occupied the greater portion of this extensive bay, which Captain Wickham, out of compliment, named after myself.

Point Torment afforded a very fair field for the exertions of our collectors in Natural History.  Without wishing to bore my readers with another long mosquito story, I think the following may be interesting.

AN OFFICER ENTANGLED IN MANGROVES.

One of the officers on a shooting excursion lost his way and got entangled in a mangrove forest, where the ground being a soft mud, travelling became very laborious, particularly in a temperature of 85 degrees and without water; fatigue hastened by thirst, at length quite knocked up my shipmate, who threw himself exhausted on the ground.  In vain did he seek for a little rest, for no sooner was he quiet than swarms of mosquitoes assailed him, and forced him again on his legs; unwelcome as these tormenting visitors generally are, they were probably in this case the means of saving my friend’s life, as goaded on by their unceasing attacks, to exertions otherwise out of the question, he eventually reached assistance, and was brought on board in a most helpless condition.

The tide here was two hours later than at Foul Point:  the greatest rise noticed in the ship was thirty feet, which was seven feet less than we had found it in the yawl.

We had several heavy squalls from eastward this afternoon, and during the early part of the night, with rain and thunder.

March 15.

The morning broke dull and gloomy, with a light breeze from the eastward.  There were altogether evident symptoms of a decided and immediate change in the weather.  The survey of the south-eastern portion of the sound being now complete, the ship was taken over to the high rocky land lying north 20 miles from Point Torment.  We crossed the flat extending four miles North-West from that point, in from two to three fathoms at low-water; the soundings afterwards varied from nine to eleven fathoms with a soft, muddy sand bottom.  We anchored in seven fathoms low-water, one mile and a half South-South-West from the southern of two small rocky islets, lying 16 miles north from Point Torment and three from the rocky shore behind them; a sandbank, dry at low-water, extended from these islets to within half a mile of the ship.