AND CAPABILITIES OF THE COAST. 245 
that the spit a little to the north of Mount Lofty would 
afford good shelter to minor vessels under its lee. When the 
nature of the country is taken into consideration, and the 
facility of entering that which lies between the ranges and 
the Lake Alexandria, from the south, and of a direct com- 
munication with the lake itself, the want of an extensive 
harbour will, in some measure, be compensated for, more 
especially when it is known that within four leagues of 
Cape Jervis, a port little inferior to Port Jackson, with a 
safe and broad entrance, exists at Kangaroo Island. The 
sealers have given this spot the name of American Harbour. 
In it, I am informed, vessels are completely land-locked, 
and secure from every wind. Kangaroo Island is not, 
however, fertile by any means. It abounds in shallow 
lakes fdled with salt water during high tides, and which, 
by evaporation, yield a vast quantity of salt. 
I gathered from the sealers that neither the promontory 
separating St. Vincent from Spencer’s Gulf, nor the 
neighbourhood of Port Lincoln, are other than barren 
and sandy wastes. They all agree in describing Port 
Lincoln itself as a magnificent roadstead, but equally agree 
as to the sterility of its shores. It appears, therefore, that 
the promontory of Cape Jervis owes its superiority to its 
natural features ; in fact, to the mountains that occupy its 
centre, to the debris that has been washed from them, and 
to the decomposition of the better description of its rocks. 
Such is the case at Illawarra, where the mountains approach 
the sea; such indeed is the case every where, at a certain 
distance from mountain ranges. 
