APPEARANCE OF THE COAST, 177 



that had not before met the eye of an European. 

 These presented a very level outline. The interior 

 was, for a great distance, a vast plain, so low that 

 we could scarcely see it from the ship's mast-head 

 over the sand-hills, which did not exceed the heiglit 

 of 40 feet. Six or seven miles from the Turtle 

 Isles this extensive level was interrupted by the 

 presence of a group of hills, from 200 to 300 feet 

 in elevation, apparently of the same character as the 

 heights behind Depuch Island. As seen through 

 the medium of mirage, they often had a most curious 

 appearance : high continuous ranges, changing 

 again to lofty islands, danced in the tremulous air. 

 I should remark that when the land was subject 

 to this distortion, it was alwavs durino; the fore- 

 noon, and on those days the winds were invariably 

 light. 



The shore, for nearly fifteen miles from Depuch 

 Island is verv low, lined with manoroves, and inter- 

 sected by creeks, which at high w^ater, when the 

 tide rises sometimes 18 feet, are of some magnitude, 

 and inundate much of the low land, leaving large 

 portions of it whitened by a salt incrustation. 

 Beyond, as far as the Turtle Isles, the coast is 

 fronted with a ridge of sand-hills, scantily covered 

 with vegetation, (the highest, as I have already 

 said, rarely exceeding an elevation of 40 feet,) 

 formino" a barrier between the sea and the low lands 

 behind, which, from the mast-head, appeared to be 

 thickly covered with small trees, and slightly 



VOL. II. N 



