COURSE OF THE VICTORIA. 113 



Of that promise, therefore, I now tender this in 

 fulfilment. 



The Victoria falls into the Indian Ocean in lat. 

 14" 40' S. and long. 129" 21' E., being at its conflu- 

 ence with the sea, between Turtle and Pearce Points, 

 twenty-six miles wide. The land upon either side as 

 you enter the river is bold and well defined, but 

 from the margin of the western shore, an extensive 

 mud and mauOTOve flat, not entirelv above the level 

 of high water, and reaching to the base of a range 

 of hills, about seventeen miles from the water's edge, 

 seems to indicate that at one time the waters of the 

 Victoria washed the high land on either side. 



For the first thirty miles of the upward course, the 

 character of the river undergoes but little change. 

 The left side continues bold, with the exception of 

 a few extensive flats, sometimes overflowed, and a 

 remarkable rocky elevation, about twenty-five miles 

 up, to which we gave the name of The Fort, as sug- 

 gested by its bastion-like appearance, though now 

 called Table HiU in the chart. To the ri^rht the 

 shore remains low, studded with mangroves, and 

 still, from appearance, subject to not unfrequent in- 

 undations : towards the mouth, indeed, it is partially 

 flooded by each returning tide. Thirty-five miles from 

 its mouth its whole appearance undergoes the most 

 striking alteration. We now enter the narrow defile 

 of a precipitous rocky range of compact sandstone, 

 rising from 4 to 500 feet in height, and coming 

 down to the river, in some places nearly two miles 



VOL. II. I 



