Leave Booby Island. 
Eastern shore of Gulf. 
Van Diemen’s Inlet. 
Exploration of. 
Party of Natives. 
Level country. 
Tides. 
Visit Bountiful Islands. 
Description of them. 
Sail for Sweers Island. 
Investigator Road. 
Natives. 
Locusts. 
Record of the Investigator’s visit. 
Dig a well. 
Boats explore island and coast to the westward. 
Sweers and Bentinck Islands. 
Tides. 
Take ship over to the main. 
Another boat expedition leaves. 
Ship proceeds to the head of the Gulf. 
Discovery and exploration of Disaster Inlet. 
Narrow escape. 
Description of Interior. 
Wild Fowl. 
Explore coast to the eastward. 
Inlets. 
Discover the Flinders. 
The Cuckoo. 
Ascent of the river. 
Night scene. 
Burial tree. 
Remarks. 
Return to the ship. 
Exploration of south-western part of Gulf. 
Large inlets discovered.

June 26.

The vessels forming our convoy departed this morning, and soon disappeared in the western horizon, leaving the Beagle, that seemed destined to be a solitary roamer, once more alone at anchor under Booby Island.

On the same evening she was herself pursuing her lonely way towards the Gulf of Carpentaria, the eastern shore of which we saw on the morning of the 1st of July.  In the afternoon we anchored in 3 1/4 fathoms; the north end of a very low sandy piece of coast, which we found to be in latitude 16 degrees 13 1/2 minutes South, longitude 9 degrees 10 East of Port Essington, bearing South 70 degrees East, six miles and a half.  From this place the coast trended South 10 degrees West, and was fringed with mangroves; a few straggling casuarinas grew near the sandy parts, a feature which we constantly afterwards found to recur; their tall broom-like shapes form a remarkable element in the coast scenery of the Gulf.

SINGULAR TIDAL PHENOMENON.

A fruitless attempt was made to visit the shore, which was fronted for the distance of a mile by a bank of soft mud.  We could therefore gain no information respecting the interior; but from the numerous fires, it appeared to be thickly inhabited.  It was here that we first observed the singular phenomenon of the tides ebbing and flowing twelve hours.

GULF OF CARPENTARIA.

Next day the coast was examined for fifteen miles to the southward; its general character has already been given, which renders it unnecessary to dilate further here.  North-east winds now forced us away from the land, and we did not see it again till the morning of the 3rd; when, finding as much as four fathoms within two miles and a half of a projection, we named it, in consequence, Bold Point.  It is in latitude 17 degrees 0 minutes South, longitude 8 degrees 48 minutes East of Port Essington, and is rendered conspicuous by two clumps of trees.  North 23 degrees West two miles from Bold Point, we observed an opening, and after anchoring the ship as near the