38 HOPES OF DISCOVERING A IIIVEU. 



slight break in the line of cliffs surrounding it ; the 

 large inlet terminated in a creek passing close at the 

 southern foot of the hill, where it branched off in 

 an east and north-east direction, and in the course 

 of three miles, became lost at the western extremity 

 of some low thickly wooded plains, which extended 

 eastward as far as the eye could reach. To the 

 south lay M'Adam Range, which declining to 

 the eastward, was at length blended with the 

 plain, the eye finding some difficulty in deter- 

 mining where the hills ended and the plain com- 

 menced. . 



All the soundings and other data for the chart, 

 in the immediate neighbourhood, were collected by 

 the 16th, when the ship was got under weigh, as 

 soon as the tide, which here rose twenty feet, 

 was high enough. After passing through a channel, 

 six and seven fathoms deep, which the dry extreme 

 of the sand-bank fronting the flat, extending 

 off M'Adam Range, bearing S. S. E. led through, 

 we hauled over to the westward for a swash 

 way in the sands, extending off the north-west 

 end of Clump Island. In crossing the inlet, run- 

 ning under the south end of M'Adam Range, we 

 found as much as ten fathoms, a depth that led to 

 the hope of its being of great importance, perhaps 

 indeed the mouth of a river. Passing between 

 Clump and Quoin Islands, we anchored midway 

 between the latter and Drift-wood Island, a pro- 

 ceeding which the approach of high water rendered 



