204 Geographical Collections. 
any of the charts, he gave them the name of George’s Islands, in honour of his 
majesty George the Fourth. These islands were perfectly white, being composed 
of soft sand and limestone. The sea-birds make them resting-places, and depo- 
sit their eggs upon them: the beech was also numerously surrounded by seals. 
Beyond George’s Islands the southward and eastward shore is a deep half-moon 
bay ; the westernmost point Lieutenant Hardy called Rocky Point. Bearing up 
to Shoal Point, which lies in lat. 31° 15’ N., long. 113° 45’ W. our navigator 
fell in with another island, whose latitude he ascertained to be 31° 1’ N. and 
long. 113° 45’ W., and Rocky Point, by bearings, 31° 23’ N. lat. and 113° 0’ 
W. long. To this new island he gave the name of Clarence Island. 
From this’ latter Lieutenant Hardy bore up and stood for an opening to the 
eastward of Shoal Point, supposing it to be the mouth of the Rio Celorado, 
being under the impression that Shoal Point was the large island of Santa Innes, 
laid down in Arrowsmith’s chart, and by M. Humboldt, in lat. 32° 30’ N. 
But here they were fated to fresh disappointment ; for instead of this being, as 
he had flattered himself, the mouth of the river, he ascertained, when they got 
into four fathoms and a half water, that it was merely a bay, of about fifteen miles 
depth, formed by the coast of Sonora on the east, and Shoal Point on the west ; 
and this point, looking exactly like an island, he very naturally supposes to be 
the one which is laid down in some maps as Santa Innes, and in others as San 
Ignacio. The bay, which is completely open to the south-east, Lieut. Hardy 
named ‘ Adair Bay.” 
Standing back to Clarence Island, which is composed of alternate strata of 
lime and sandstone, of considerable elevation, and about a mile in circumference, 
they came close to a high bluff, which our navigator named Cole Point, on the 
Californian coast, in eight fathoms water, bottom soft pipe-clay ; the latitude was 
31° 18’ N. and longitude 114° 1’ W. From this Point they bore directly up 
into the river, which now appeared before them with two, if not three mouths, 
and the land on either side very low: both seas were covered with a delicate 
green, arising from the herbage growing on the banks. The three mouths of 
the Rio Colorado are formed by two islands, the coast of Sonora to the eastward, 
and the coast of California on the west. | 
The largest of these islands Lieutenant Hardy named after his patron, Admi- 
ral Sir George Montagu, G. C. B.: the other he called Gore Island ; and to the 
point on the Californian side, together with the southern point of Montagu Is- 
land, he gave the name of Sargent’s Point. The coast from Cole Point to the 
Rio Colorado was in a continual smoke, from the fine particles of sand which the 
wind carried full a mile into the air. He accordingly christened it ‘‘ Smoky 
Coast.”’ 
Having got under weigh with the first of the flood-tide, he got tolerably well 
through Sea Reach, (so named after the river Thames,) but met afterwards with 
many difficulties, from the strong setting of the tide, and the nests of shoals. 
In the plan of the Rio Colorado, the soundings are all laid down at low water, 
at the time of full and change. Before beating up Howard’s Reach, where the . 
deep channel is not above ninety yards wide, they had passed the channels of 
Sea Reach, N.N.E. seven miles; Lower Hope, W. by N. five miles; Half- 
HO Reach, W. by N. five miles; and Greenhithe Reach, W. by S. about seven 
miles. 
On the western side of the river there are forests of a thorny shrub, and on the 
banks there was a profusion of stems and large branches of the willow, poplar 
and acacia, which had been brought down by the flood, and were now perma- 
nently lodged in their present situations. On the eastern bank there were also 
wrecks of these trees ; but, except a dwarf reed, there was no other vegetation. 
From the mast-head nothing on this side was distinguishable, except the waters 
of the Rio Colorado and Rio Gila, and an interminable plain ; and to the west- 
ward rises the Cordillera, which extends from Cape San Lucas, on the southern 
extremity cf Lower California. To the northward and eastward, there was a 
jong row of lofty trees, which Lieut. Hardy concluded were growing on the banks 
