224 
A VOYAGE TO 
[North Coast. 
February °f Adding a convenient position disappointed me, and 
Monday 14 . no satisfactory base was obtained here ; so that the extent of this 
bay in the chart is rather uncertain. 
My course from the three rocks was directed S. S. E., for the 
south side of the bay ; the distance was three miles, and the depth 
for half the way from 5 to 3 fathoms, but afterwards shoal. Upon 
some low cliffs there, partly composed of pipe clay, a few bearings 
were taken ; and after walking a little way inland, to examine the 
country, I rowed back to a small island near the south extremity of 
Drimmie Head, with soundings mostly between 3 and 6~ fathoms ; 
but there is no ship passage between it and the head. Having taken 
some additional bearings and looked over tbe islet, I returned on 
board in the evening; passing in the way near a rock, dry at half tide, 
but round which, at a ship’s length, there is 2~ to 3 fathoms. 
Tuesday is. Some further bearings and observations were taken on the 1 5th, 
and my intention to sail on the following morning being frustrated 
by a fresh wind at north-west, with unsettled weather, Messieurs 
Wednes. 16. Brown and Bauer accompanied me in a boat excursion to the eastern 
part of the bay. We first landed at the islet near Drimmie Head, 
that Mr. Brown might examine its mineralogy ; and then steered 
three miles eastward for a low projection covered with mangroves, 
growing on rocks of strongly impregnated iron stone. Coasting 
along the mangrove shore from thence northward, and after landing 
at one other place, we came to the isthmus which connects Drimmie 
Head to the land of Point Dundas ; and it being near high water, 
the boat was got over the isthmus by a small passage through the 
mangroves, and we reached the ship at one o’clock, where every 
thing was prepared for weighing the anchor. 
This bay is unnoticed in the Dutch chart, and I name it Mel- 
ville Bay, in compliment to the Rigid Hon. Robert Saunders Dundas, 
viscount Melville, who, as first lord of the Admiralty, has continued 
that patronage to the voyage which it had experienced under some 
of his predecessors. It is the best harbour we found in the Gulph 
