m 
A VOYAGE TO 
[ East Coast. 
1802. 
September. 
Saturday 4. 
a kanguroo had led one of the gentlemen out of his reckoning ; and 
this, with the labour of bringing down their prize, had prevented 
them from reaching the water side that night. Pine Mount is stony, 
but covered with large trees of the kind denoted by its epithet ; the 
country between it and the water side is grassy, bears timber trees, 
and is of a tolerably good soil, such as might be cultivated. There 
are small creeks of salt water in the low land ; and in one of them a 
fish was shot which furnished the party with a dinner. 
Pine Mount is composed of the greenstone of the German 
mineralogists ; but in some other parts of the neighbourhood the 
stone seems to be different, and contains small veins of quartz, 
pieces of which are also scattered over the surface. At Aken’s 
Island there was some variety. The most common kind was a 
slate, containing in some places veins of quartz, in a state nearly 
approaching to crystallization, and in others some metallic substance, 
probably iron. The basis of most other parts of the island was 
greenstone ; but in the eastern cliffs there was a soft, whitish earth; 
and on the north-west side of the island, a part of the shore consisted 
of water-worn grains and small lumps of quartz, of coral, pumice 
stone, and other substances jumbled together, and concreted into a 
solid mass. 
Speaking in general terms of Shoal-water Bay, I do not con- 
ceive it to offer any advantages to ships which may not be had upon 
almost any other part of the coast; except that the tides rise higher, 
and in the winter season fish are more plentiful than further to the 
south. No fresh water was found, unless at a distance from the 
shore, and then only in small quantities. Pine trees are plentiful ; 
but they grow upon the stony hills at a distance from the water side, 
and cannot be procured with any thing like the facility offered by 
Port Bowen. The chart contains the best information I am able to 
give of the channels leading up the bay, and of the shoals between 
them; but it may be added, that no alarm need be excited by a ship 
getting aground, for these banks are too soft to do injury. The 
