guide is only, however, of service to a certain distance within the entrance, as it leads over a small patch that dries at low-water, distant two and a half miles from the above-mentioned point on the same bearing.  To avoid this danger, it is therefore necessary to haul over towards Quail Island, when the highest hummock on it bears South-West 1/2 West.  The tides follow the direction of the channel, varying in velocity from one to two knots.  The ebb in the offing set West-North-West.

Port Patterson.

The reader will be able to have an idea of the large sheet of water these united harbours form, by knowing that Port Patterson is twelve miles long and seven wide at the entrance; though at the upper part, forming the mouth of Bynoe Harbour, it is not half that width.  The latter winds round to the South-East for a distance of 15 miles, with an average width of two, and a depth of nine fathoms.  Thus terminated our exploration in this neighbourhood; the result having been to give this part of the coast quite an insulated character.  The sheets of water creating this new feature, although monotonous with their mangrove-lined shores, still conveyed us many miles into various parts of the continent that had never before been seen by a civilized being.

Another opening of far greater magnitude, and promising in all probability to lead far into the interior now lay before us, at a distance of 140 miles further on the coast to the south-west.  By the evening we had lost sight of the land near Port Patterson, and were steering towards the opening that promised so much.  A gap in the coastline, 28 miles wide, with a strong tide passing to and fro, failed not to give birth to endless speculation as we approached the spot.  I had always looked forward to the examination of this unexplored portion of the North-west coast, as one of the most interesting parts of our survey.

Reach point Pearce.

In consequence of light north-west and westerly winds, our approach was tantalizingly slow, and we did not enter the opening until the evening of the 9th, when we passed four miles from the north point, called by Captain King, Point Pearce.  His visit to this part of the coast was in September 1819, and under very adverse circumstances; his vessel had but one anchor left, and the strong easterly winds then prevailing, with thick hazy weather, rendered his progress into the opening both difficult and hazardous:  after a trial of two days, and having several narrow escapes from getting on shore, he bore away to examine the coast to the south-west, where he was repaid for his disappointment by the discovery of Cambridge Gulf.

Thus did the exploration of this wide and interesting opening fall to our good fortune; as we proceeded inwards, several beautiful medusae passed the ship, and our hopes were roused to the highest pitch by the muddy appearance of the water.  At sun set the anchor was dropped in five fathoms; Point Pearce, a cliffy level projection, bearing North-West by North five miles, and about one and a half from a low rocky point.