Shoal- water Bay.'] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
45 
morning on board the brig, and proceeded towards the head of 
the Bay. 
Steering south-eastward, in a slanting course up the bay from 
the middle shoal, we had from 5 to 8 fathoms ; and passed a shal- 
low opening in the eastern low shore, four miles above Strong- 
tide Passage. Three miles higher up there was another opening, near 
two miles in width ; and the wind being then light and foul, I quitted 
the brig and proceeded three miles up in my boat, when the arm 
was found to be divided into two branches. Pursuing that which led 
eastward in a line for Port Bowen, and was three-quarters of a mile 
wide, I carried a diminishing depth, from 6 fathoms to six feet, 
above two miles further ; and the branch then terminated at the foot 
of a ridge of hills. I wished much to ascend this ridge, believing 
that West-water Head in Port Bowen, lay close at the back ; but the 
shore was so defended by mud flats and interwoven mangroves, 
that it was impossible to land. 
1802 .. 
August. 
Monday 30. 
The other branch of the eastern arm led south-eastward, and 
was a mile wide, with a depth of 6 fathoms as far as two miles above 
the division ; it then separated into three, but the entrances were shal- 
low and the borders every where muddy and covered with man- 
groves. I therefore returned to the brig which had anchored at the 
entrance of the branch ; and in the night, we dropped out of the 
eastern arm with the tide, to be ready for going up the bay with the 
morning's flood. 
On the 31st, in steering for the middle of the bay, the brig Tuesday si. 
■grounded upon a spit which runs out from the south point of en- 
trance to the eastern arm, and I believe extends so far down the bay 
as to join the middle shoal near the ship. The bottom was muddy, 
and the rising tide soon floated her ; but our progress being slow, I 
went onward in the boat and got into a channel of a mile wide, with 
regular soundings from 6 to 4 fathoms. 
Abreast of the eastern arm, the width of the bay had diminished 
to about four miles ; and in advancing upwards, I found it to go on 
