9§ BOAT CRUISE UP THE PORT. 



tain Blackwood with Dr. Muirhead and myself set 

 off in the third gig, with four hands, to explore the 

 southern arm of the Port. After sailing six or 

 seven miles we found this arm, which had hitherto 

 been two or three miles in width, split into two 

 among the great beds of mangroves which bordered 

 it on either hand. We took the right hand branch, 

 which at half-past eleven we found turning to the 

 west, and half-an-hour afterwards curving round to 

 the north. It was still, however, three or four 

 hundred yards wide, and twelve feet deep at high 

 water. As we approached we had observed 

 columns of smoke rising in two or three places on 

 the slopes of the hills behind the mangroves, and at 

 half-past twelve, we saw a small opening or path- 

 way through the mangroves on our left hand, and 

 immediately landed on it. It led directly to a 

 small mount twenty feet high, and about twenty 

 yards across, consisting of porphyry, but almost 

 covered with scattered oyster shells, and thence 

 through another narrow belt of mangroves to a 

 projecting ridge of the main land. Crossing 

 on to this we found a bare sandy space running 

 at the back of the mangroves, between them 

 and "the bush" or grasssy woodland, and a 

 well-beaten native footpath leading along it both 

 to the north and south. Ascending the ridge, 

 which was probably about 300 feet high, and 

 covered with gum-trees, we saw that the inlet we had 

 come by ended altogether about a mile further to the 



