RISE AND FALL OF TIDE. 43 



northward. We saw no animals, except a reddish- 

 coloured rat among some stones on the beach, of 

 which, however, I only succeeded in catching the 

 young ones. We now crossed to the north shore of 

 the bay, but though it was high water, we nowhere 

 succeeded in finding a greater depth than four 

 fathoms. We established ourselves for the night on 

 a little sandy beach at the foot of a green hill, where 

 was a small deep hollow that the boat would pro- 

 bably float in at low water, and enable us to ascer- 

 tain the rise and fall of tide. This was found during 

 the night to be 25 feet 6 inches, the moon not yet at 

 the full. The spring tide rise and fall, therefore, is 

 probably little less than thirty feet. Just before 

 sunset, in a gap in the nearest range of hills, we 

 could count three other ranges immediately behind 

 it, the last very distant. Still I could not be sure 

 that they were distinct ridges, as they might be only 

 the projecting points of an indented table land ; I 

 am however inclined rather to look upon the hills as 

 composed of parallel ranges than as a level table 

 land. 



March 16. — Though at breakfast this morning 

 we consumed all our remaining stock of provisions, 

 Captain Blackwood decided on running up the bay 

 with the flood tide, to examine one or two consider- 

 able openings in the mangroves. We first tried one 

 going in at the N.W. corner, but as it did not look 

 promising, returned and went up one running due 

 west. A very strong flood tide swept us rapidly up 



