A boat was sent in the evening to the foot of Pine Mount, for the naturalist and his party, but returned without any tidings of them; and it was noon next day [SATURDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 1802] before they got on board.  They had reached the top of the mount, but were disappointed in the view by the pines and underwood.  In returning to the boat, a chase after a kangaroo had led one of the gentlemen out of his reckoning; and this, with the labour of bringing down their prize, had prevented them from reaching the water side that night.  Pine Mount is stony, but covered with large trees of the kind denoted by its epithet; the country between it and the water side is grassy, bears timber trees, and is of a tolerably good soil, such as might be cultivated.  There are small creeks of salt water in the low land; and in one of them a fish was shot which furnished the party with a dinner.

Pine Mount is composed of the greenstone of the German mineralogists; but in some other parts of the neighbourhood the stone seems to be different, and contains small veins of quartz, pieces of which are also scattered over the surface.  At Aken’s Island there was some variety.  The most common kind was a slate, containing in some places veins of quartz, in a state nearly approaching to crystallization, and in others some metallic substance, probably iron.  The basis of most other parts of the island was greenstone; but in the eastern cliffs there was a soft, whitish earth; and on the north-west side of the island, a part of the shore consisted of water-worn grains and small lumps of quartz, of coral, pumice stone, and other substances jumbled together, and concreted into a solid mass.

Speaking in general terms of Shoal-water Bay, I do not conceive it to offer any advantages to ships which may not be had upon almost any other part of the coast; except that the tides rise higher, and in the winter season fish are more plentiful than further to the south.  No fresh water was found, unless at a distance from the shore, and then only in small quantities.  Pine trees are plentiful; but they grow upon the stony hills at a distance from the water side, and cannot be procured with any thing like the facility offered by Port Bowen.  The chart contains the best information I am able to give of the channels leading up the bay, and of the shoals between them; but it may be added, that no alarm need be excited by a ship getting aground, for these banks are too soft to do injury.  The shelving flats from the shores are also soft; and with the mangroves, which spread themselves from high water at the neaps, up in the country to the furthest reach of the spring tides, in some places for miles, render landing impossible in the upper parts of the bay, except at some few spots already noticed.

Were an English settlement to be made in Shoal-water Bay, the better soil round Pine Mount and the less difficulty in landing there, would cause that neighbourhood to be preferred.  There is not a sufficient depth at low water, for ships to go into the West Bight, by the south side of Aken’s Island, and the north side was no otherwise sounded than in passing; but there is little doubt that the depth on the north side is adequate to admit ships, and that some parts of the bight will afford anchorage and good shelter.