PROCEED TO SURVEY THE MAIN.

The boats were again sent, with Messrs. Fitzmaurice and Pasco, to continue the examination of the shore of the Gulf, towards the head of it, where they were to meet the ship.  We made the best of our way thither, after securing some soundings to the South-West of Sweers Island and carrying a line eastwards from it, midway across the gulf, where we found a very even dark sandy mud bottom, with a depth of 7 fathoms.

THE SANDHILL.

Strong south and south-east winds, which reduced the temperature, on one occasion, to 56 degrees about 4 A.M., generally prevailed, excepting for a few hours in the afternoon; quite reminding us of the winds we experienced at Depuch Island on the North-west coast, and preventing us from reaching our destination till the morning of the 24th, when we anchored two miles and a quarter from a particularly bare sand hillock, bearing South 53 degrees West.  This was named The Sandhill, par excellence; there being no other on the shore of the Gulf.  To the eastward there appeared an opening with a remarkable quoin-shaped clump of tall mangroves at the entrance.  It being neap tide, we were enabled to take the ship thus close to the shore, and as it was the nearest approach we could make to the head of the Gulf, another boat expedition was set on foot to explore it, consisting of the yawl and gig, in which Lieutenant Gore and myself left the ship the same afternoon.  The first spot visited was The Sandhill, which we found to be forty feet high, in latitude 17 degrees 38 minutes 20 seconds South, longitude 7 degrees 48 minutes 00 seconds East of Port Essington.  From its summit we immediately perceived that our conjecture was right respecting the opening close to the eastward.  The shore was sandy to the westward, a remarkable circumstance, considering that nearly everywhere else all was mangrove.  Whatever we saw of the interior, appeared to be low patches of bare mud, which bespoke frequent inundations.  We could also trace a low mangrove shore forming the head of the Gulf, without any appearance of a large opening, which was a bitter disappointment; in some measure, however, compensated by the fact that it was all new, Flinders having expressed himself doubtful how far back the shore lay.

DISASTER INLET.

The point on which The Sandhill is situated I called after Lieutenant Gore, and the inlet, which we entered just before dark, Disaster Inlet, from a circumstance of what may be called a tragical nature which happened in it.  Like all the other inlets, as we afterwards found, it had a bar scarcely passable at low-water for boats; but within there was a depth of two and three fathoms.  It appears that the streams passing out of these openings groove out a channel in the great flat fronting the shores for from one to three miles; but as the distance from their mouths increased, the velocity and consequent strength of the stream diminished in proportion, and, as we afterwards found, at this season was never strong enough to force a channel the entire way through the flat or bank at the entrance, which was thrown out in consequence further from the shore.  The projection thus formed in the great flat indicated the importance of the inlet.