Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura SeaStokes, John Lort
History
Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2: Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers; Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The; Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners; Of the Admiralty. Also a Narrative of Captain Owen Stanley's Visits; To the Islands in the Arafura Sea
Stokes, John Lort
Australia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Discovery and exploration; Natural history -- Australia
(*Footnote. The west point of Sweers Island, bearing North 10 degrees
East and the east point of Bentinck Island, North 8 degrees East mark the
limits of each board. The north-west part of Sweers Island just shut in
with Point Inscription leads in, and the dry part of the reef off the
south-east end of Sweers Island, bearing South 85 degrees East, clears
the reef off the south end of Sweers and Fowler Islands. A white patch of
cliff to the northward of Point Inscription, in one with it, leads over
the extreme of the shoal off the south-east end of Fowler Island.)
PROCEED TO SURVEY THE MAIN.
The boats were again sent, with Messrs. Fitzmaurice and Pasco, to
continue the examination of the shore of the Gulf, towards the head of
it, where they were to meet the ship. We made the best of our way
thither, after securing some soundings to the South-West of Sweers Island
and carrying a line eastwards from it, midway across the gulf, where we
found a very even dark sandy mud bottom, with a depth of 7 fathoms.
THE SANDHILL.
Strong south and south-east winds, which reduced the temperature, on one
occasion, to 56 degrees about 4 A.M., generally prevailed, excepting for
a few hours in the afternoon; quite reminding us of the winds we
experienced at Depuch Island on the North-west coast, and preventing us
from reaching our destination till the morning of the 24th, when we
anchored two miles and a quarter from a particularly bare sand hillock,
bearing South 53 degrees West. This was named The Sandhill, par
excellence; there being no other on the shore of the Gulf. To the
eastward there appeared an opening with a remarkable quoin-shaped clump
of tall mangroves at the entrance. It being neap tide, we were enabled to
take the ship thus close to the shore, and as it was the nearest approach
we could make to the head of the Gulf, another boat expedition was set on
foot to explore it, consisting of the yawl and gig, in which Lieutenant
Gore and myself left the ship the same afternoon. The first spot visited
was The Sandhill, which we found to be forty feet high, in latitude 17
degrees 38 minutes 20 seconds South, longitude 7 degrees 48 minutes 00
seconds East of Port Essington. From its summit we immediately perceived
that our conjecture was right respecting the opening close to the
eastward. The shore was sandy to the westward, a remarkable circumstance,
considering that nearly everywhere else all was mangrove. Whatever we saw
of the interior, appeared to be low patches of bare mud, which bespoke
frequent inundations. We could also trace a low mangrove shore forming
the head of the Gulf, without any appearance of a large opening, which
was a bitter disappointment; in some measure, however, compensated by the
fact that it was all new, Flinders having expressed himself doubtful how
far back the shore lay.
DISASTER INLET.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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