346 cook's first voyage nov. 



land is tolerably high and hilly ; on the west side, it 

 is rather low, but the whole is covered with verdure 

 and wood, and has the appearance of great fertility, 

 though there were but a few small spots which had 

 been cultivated. At the entrance of the narrow part 

 of the river, the land is covered with mangroves and 

 other shrubs ; but farther, there are immense woods 

 of perhaps the finest timber in the world, of which 

 some account has already been given : in several 

 places, the wood extends to the very edge of the 

 water, and where it is at a little distance, the inter- 

 mediate space is marshy, like some parts of the banks 

 of the Thames in England: it is probable that the 

 river contains plenty of fish, for we saw poles stuck 

 up in many places to set nets for catching them, but 

 of what kinds I do not know. The greatest depth 

 of water that we found in this river was six-and- 

 twenty fathom, which gradually decreased to one 

 fathom and an half: in the mouth of the fresh-water 

 stream, it is from four to three fathom, but there are 

 large flats and sand banks lying before it. A ship of 

 moderate draught may, notwithstanding, go a long 

 way up this river with a flowing tide, for it rises per- 

 pendicularly near ten feet, and at the full and change 

 of the moon, it is high water about nine o'clock. 



Six leagues within Cape Colville, under the eastern 

 shore, are several small islands, which, together with 

 the main, seem to form good harbours ; and opposite 

 to these islands, under the western shore, lie other 

 islands, by which it is also probable that good har- 

 bours may be formed : but if there are no harbours 

 about this river, there is good anchoring in every 

 part of it where the depth of water is sufficient, for 

 it is defended from the sea by a chain of islands of 

 different extent, which lie cross the mouth of it, and 

 which I have, for that reason, called Barrier Islands : 

 they stretch N. W. and S. E. ten leagues. The south 

 end of the chain lies N. E. between two and three 

 leagues from Cape Colville j and the north end lies 



