Continuing on the west side from Point William to Shoal Point (places named by Mr. Hayes), the land is too stony upon the hills for cultivation, but is proper for pasturage.  The valleys are, as usual, adapted to grain.

The land round Prince of Wales’s Cove is rather level, and frequently clayey:  the worst of it produces excellent food for cattle, even up to the foot of the high mountain lying at its back.  Being a stiff close soil, it is perhaps adapted to the growth of grape vines, rather than of grain.  About three hundred acres of open ground, called by Mr. Hayes King George’s Plains (could this have been in derision?) seem well calculated for this purpose, and for this only.

The land at the head of Risdon creek, on the east side, seems preferable to any other on the banks of the Derwent.  The creek runs winding between two steep hills, and ends in a chain of ponds that extends into a fertile valley of great beauty.  For half a mile above the head of the creek, the valley is contracted and narrow; but the soil is extremely rich, and the fields are well covered with grass.  Beyond this it suddenly expands, and becomes broad and flat at the bottom, whence arise long grassy slopes, that by a gentle but increasing ascent continue to mount the hills on each side, until they are hidden from the view by the woods of large timber which overhang their summits.  With this handsome disposition of the ground, the valley extends several miles to the SE in the figure of a small segment of a circle.  The tops of its hills, though stony, produce abundance of tall timber, which, as it descends the slopes, diminishes in size, and thins off to a few scattered she oaks and gum trees, interspersed with small coppices of the beautiful flowering fern.

The soil along the bottom, and to some distance up the slopes, is a rich vegetable mould, apparently hardened by a small mixture of clay, which grows a large quantity of thick, juicy grass, and some few patches of close underwood.

Herdman’s Cove, (so named by Lieutenant Flinders from the surrounding country) above Risdon Creek, has a large tract of good pasture land lying at its head.  The country, which is unusually thin of timber, is finely rounded into grassy hills of various moderate ascent.  The soil consists of more brown earth than black vegetable mould; upon the sides and tops of the hills, it is frequently stony; but in some of the valleys rich and fine, and capable of profitable cultivation.  A chain of ponds intersecting the hills afforded an almost continual stream of fresh water into the head of the Cove.

As it was not supposed that the sloop could proceed above Herdsman’s Cove, Mr. Bass and his companion went up the river in her boat, imagining that one tide would enable them to reach its source; but in this they were mistaken, falling, as they believed, several miles short of it.  Where the returning tide met them, the water had become perfectly fresh; the stream was two hundred and thirty yards in breadth, and in depth three fathoms.  It was wedged in between high grassy hills that descended to the river upon a quick slope, and had a grand appearance.  But the only cultivable land that they saw was some few breaks in the hills, and some narrow slips that were found at their foot close to the water’s side.