COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
229 
mast-head, and the opening, if any, was suspected 1819. 
to be a stream communicating with Ninian Bay. July is. 
To the eastward of our course, abreast of Point 
Barrow, is a shoal, s, about three miles long, whose 
rocks shewed their heads above the water ; be- 
yond this the weather was too hazy to observe 
any thing. 
Point Barrow is eleven miles to the northward 
of Cape Bowen, and is a narrow promontory, 
forming the south head of a deep bay, which I 
intended to anchor in and examine ; for it bore 
the name of Port Ninian in Lieutenant Jeffrey’s 
chart; but, on entering it, our soundings rapidly 
decreased to three and a half fathoms long before 
Point Barrow sheltered us from the wind. After 
steering over to the north side, and ascertaining 
that the shoal water extended across the bay, we 
stood out again, and resumed a course along the 
most rugged and most stony land I ever saw ; the 
stones are all of rounded form, and heaped up 
in a most extraordinary and confused manner, as 
if it were effected by some extraordinary convul- 
sion of nature. Might they not have been of dilu- 
vian origin ? This promontory was named by 
Lieutenant Jeffreys, Cape Melville. At half past 
one o’clock we passed between the straggling 
rocks which lie off the Cape and Pipon Island ; 
and as we hauled round Cape Melville into 
Bathurst Bay, the soundings suddenly decreased 
