Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 2.djvu/354

 SLmG OntSCTION& 329 amined. The West Ann extends down the west sido of A. AdoJphua Island for seven miles; it is then divided by a bet. IV. projecting point under View Hill; and, whilst one runs to N. West 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 At the entrance of the basin the high rocky character of the west shore is superseded by low mangrove banks, with here and there a detached hill rising from a plain of low marshy land, that, at the time of our visit, was covered with a alt incrustation, occasioned by the evaporation of the sea, which, apparently, had lately' flooded the low lands to a great extent: some of these p!aina are eveu 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 ive 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

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