“There is now three feet more water on the bar than there was previous to its being deepened, and if the work be continued next summer, to enlarge a cut which has been made, there will be five feet.

“I have the honour to be, Sir, your obedient servant,

“Thomas Lipson, Harbour Master. 
“The Honourable Colonial Secretary.”

It is not clear to me, however, that the admission of larger class shipping into the Port will be of any great advantage.  I am led to believe that ships of smaller tonnage than those drawing 16 to 17 feet, have been found to be most convenient for the ordinary purposes of commerce.  However, it is evident, that if Captain Lipson continues the same praiseworthy exertions he has hitherto used, he will deepen the bar for vessels of any tonnage.  Under existing circumstances, it may be as well to state that any ship arriving off the bar when there is not sufficient water on it for them to enter the port, will find good anchorage all round the lightship, particularly a little to the westward of it.  The whole Gulf, indeed, from this point, may be considered as a safe and extensive roadstead.  As regards Port Adelaide itself, I cannot imagine a securer or a more convenient harbour.  Without having any broad expanse of water, it is of sufficient width for vessels to lie there in perfect safety, whether as regards the wind or the anchorage.

The head of St. Vincent’s Gulf is in latitude 34 1/2 degrees.  Between that point and Port Adelaide, the shore is either lined by mangroves, or is low and sandy.  There are, nevertheless, several inlets similar to, but much smaller than Port Adelaide, and other commodious anchorages for small craft along it.  The principal of these is the inlet connected with the Gawler, of which I shall hereafter speak.  York Peninsula forms the western shore of St. Vincent’s Gulf, and separates it from that of Spencer.  It is a long, low tongue of land—­Cape Spencer, its southern extremity, being in 35 degrees 17 minutes, and in long. 136 degrees 52 minutes.  Though embracing a considerable area, the character of the Peninsula is unfavourable to the growth of nutritive herbage; the surface soil is a species of calcareous limestone, the rock formation of a tertiary description, although, at the lower extremity, granite and trap rock are known to exist.  The surface of the country is undulating, covered in many places by scrub, and the trees being very short-lived, the whole is matted with dead timber, and difficult of access.  A deficiency of water renders York Peninsula still more unfavourable for location; nevertheless, several sections of land have been purchased on that part which is immediately opposite to Port Adelaide, and it is said that indications of copper have been found there, a fact I should be inclined to doubt.  In 1840, a company applied for a special survey on the shores of the Peninsula to the southward of Point Pearce, and gave the name of Victoria Harbour to the locality; but the survey was subsequently abandoned in consequence of the unfavourable character of the interior, from the great deficiency of water.