and after breakfast Mr. Cunningham accompanied me in the whale-boat to
continue its further exploration.

The wind was blowing a fresh gale from the South-West directly out of the
Gut and impeded us a good deal; but the tide was running with such
strength that we were not long before we passed through. This passage is
about two miles and a half long, bounded on either side by rocky barren
hills rising abruptly from the water. The channel is deep for our boat's
lead-line of twenty fathoms did not reach the bottom. At the south end of
the gut the land opened out into another basin which, like the former, is
surrounded by low land overrun with mangroves and studded with several
islets, occasionally covered by the tide. The course of the river still
trended to the south-west, in which direction we continued to pull but
found some difficulty from its being very shoal; for in the fair way
across there was not more water than eighteen feet at three-quarters'
flood. At eleven o'clock, having crossed the basin, we landed on an islet
which, like the rest, had been covered by the last high tide. The river
had now contracted to the width of one hundred to one hundred and fifty
yards and trended by a winding course to the south and south-east, but
the water was still as salt as ever although we were at least sixty miles
from the sea. As there was now no probability of our extending the
examination of this river for any useful purpose we stopped at high water
and landed on the bank to examine the country whilst the people dined. We
were about two or three miles from the base of a most remarkable
quadrangular-shaped mass of hills rising abruptly from an extensive flat
plain covered with salt: the sides sloped down with a very steep descent
to the base and the top of the range was circumvented with cliffs which,
protruding at intervals, so perfectly resembled the bastions and ramparts
of a formidable fortress that it wanted only the display of a standard to
render the illusion complete. It was named Mount Cockburn in compliment