* ENTRANCE HILL. 73 



At eight a. m ., it was high water, and all the 

 mangrove swamps were afloat, so that it was some- 

 times difficult to hit on the right channel. We went 

 down very rapidly with the ebb tide, and in two 

 hours reached the hill at the mouth of the bight. 

 This we had called, from its situation, Entrance 

 Hill. We now ascended it, and from the top saw 

 great beds of mangroves running in each direc- 

 tion alongshore, with many inlets among them, and 

 another very large bight about three miles to the 

 northward, running up into the country, which we 

 concluded to be the real mouth of Wickham's River. 

 We could see also a narrow winding creek running 

 from one bight towards the other through the man- 

 groves, and apparently connecting the two.* At 

 Uh. 20m., we returned to the boat, and after a heavy 

 pull through the breakers and across the bay against 

 a head wind, we reached the ship about 4h. S20m. 

 r. m. As we found the ship would not be ready to 

 leave Cape Upstart for two or three days more, 

 Captain Blackwood gave me permission to make 

 another excursion to Wickham's River. 



May 13.— Lieut Ince, Mr. Evans, Mr. Melville 

 and myself, set off in the second gig, with three 

 days' provisions. It had been blowing hard all 

 night, but at five a. m. we left the ship, and sailed 



* We had a copy of Captain Wickham's chart of this part, 

 made when he was here in the Beagle, but it had been ao hastily 

 and imperfectly copied, that we could not make it out till after- 

 wards, when we found all these features eurrcctly marked down. 



