Port Darwin.

The other rocks near it were of a fine-grained sandstone:  a new feature in the geology of this part of the continent, which afforded us an appropriate opportunity of convincing an old shipmate and friend, that he still lived in our memory; and we accordingly named this sheet of water Port Darwin.  A few small bamboos grew on this head; the other trees were chiefly white gums.  I climbed to the top of one of them, and obtained thence a view of another opening in the eastern part of the harbour.  It now being low-water, an extensive shoal was discovered, reaching from abreast of Talc Head to the point separating the South-East and South-West openings, an extent of nearly five miles.  This somewhat diminished the value of our discovery, as it limited the capabilities of the bay as a harbour.

We now proceeded to explore the north-eastern and largest opening, distant six miles from our station.  A large islet and a reef left the entrance only a mile wide.  Expanding again, it formed two arms, one running south, the other East-South-East, between small groups of singular isolated haycock-shaped hills, about 250 feet high.  Following the latter, being the largest, we found that it soon curved round, taking a southerly direction.  A bank free from mangroves occurring in this bend, we availed ourselves of it, as the day was closing in, to secure some early stars for latitude and longitude.  The intense pleasure afforded by traversing water that had never before been divided by any keel, in some measure compensated us for the annoyance from the mosquitoes and sandflies, that took the opportunity of assailing us while in the defenceless state of quiet necessary in making observations.  Pushing out into the middle of the stream, and each wielding a beater, our tiny enemies were soon shaken off, and borne back to the shore by a refreshing North-West breeze.

We found it necessary to keep a sharp lookout here for the alligators, as they swarmed in dangerous numbers.

The scarcity of fish, and the shallowness of the water did not hold out much hope that the arm we were tracing would prove of great extent; still many speculations were hazarded on the termination of it.  The temperature in the night was down to 78 degrees, and the dew sufficiently heavy to wet the boat’s awning through.

Continue exploration.

Anxious to know how far this piece of water was to carry us into the untrodden wilds of Australia, we moved off with the first streak of dawn.  Ten miles in a South by East direction brought us to where the width and depth was not sufficient to induce us to proceed further.  Besides, as we were then only fifteen miles from a bend of the upper part of the Adelaide, which must receive the drainage of all that part of the country, it seemed improbable that any other large river existed in the neighbourhood.  Six miles from our furthest, which was about thirty