SURVEYING. 
247 
the bow called out continually the soundings, and 
Lieutenant Sidney laid down the course of the river 
as we proceeded. 
In these parts we had in some places ten feet water, 
but suddenly shoaling to two or three as we approached 
the skirts of the numerous sand-banks, wliich at that 
season, sometimes extend nearly across the stream, 
leaving but a narrow passage, even for a boat, under 
the overhanging boughs of the trees. 
The aspect of these little islands exited anything 
but pleasurable emotions ; reminding us of the Niger; 
for the decaying vegetable matter with which they 
were covered, and the slimy roots of the Mangrove, 
emitted a highly offensive odour, and our progress 
was in frequent danger of interruption from snags, 
the trunks and branches of broken trees. 
After an hour’s paddling we got clear of the islets, 
and came upon a sheet of water about two thousand 
yards wide, from which the vessel, — anchored off Bell’s 
Town, about five miles distant, — could be distinctly 
seen. We soon afterwards entered another narrow 
channel, between two islands, which presented features 
of much more agreeable character : the mangroves dis- 
appeared at the upper end, where the pilot said the 
tide ceases. By this expression he meant that the 
water is no longer salt — a circumstance indicated only 
by the change in the nature of the vegetation, as the 
tidal influence was felt at the farthest point reached on 
this occasion. 
