SAILING DIRECTIONS. 
320 
amined. The West Arm extends down the west side of 
Adolphus Island for seven miles ; it is then divided by a 
projecting point under View Hill ; and, whilst one runs to 
the eastward and unites with the East Arm, the other con- 
tinues to trend to the southward, and then opens out to an 
extensive basin eleven miles in length, and from four to 
six in breadth ; and, at seven miles, gradually contracts as 
it winds under the base of the Bastion Hills : before, how- 
ever, you arrive at the basin, the stream is divided by 
several islands and rocky islets, that narrow the channel 
in some parts to the width of half a mile, in which the 
depth is very great, and the tide runs with great strength. 
At the entrance of the basin the high rocky character of 
the west shore is superseded by low mangrove banks, with 
here and there a detached hill rising from a plain of low 
marshy land, that, at the time of our visit, was covered with 
a salt incrustation, occasioned by the evaporation of the 
sea, which, apparently, had lately flooded the low lands to a 
great extent : some of these plains are seven and eight miles in 
diameter. The hills rise abruptly ; those we examined are of 
sand-stone formation. The basin is very shoal, but there is 
a narrow channel in the centre, with from five to nine fa- 
thoms water. The shore, opposite the Bastion Hills, is low, 
and the gulf trends gradually round to the S.W. for five 
miles, when it is contracted into a narrow communication, 
called The Gut, leading to an interior shoal basin, 
strewed with low marshy islands, which the tide covers. 
This basin terminates to the southward in a narrow stream, 
winding under the base of Mount Cockburn; and there also 
appeared to be several others falling into the basin more 
to the westward. The water was salt at the extremity 
of our exploration. The Gut leading to it is two miles 
A. 
Sect. IV. 
N.lVest 
Coast. 
