Volume II Part 4 (1/2)
An alligator was seen on our return, swimming within two yards of the boat, and a musket, charged with a ball and buck-shot, was uselessly fired at it. The appearance of these animals in the water is very deceptious; they lie quite motionless, and resemble a branch of a tree floating with the tide; the snout, the eye, and some of the ridges of the back and tail being the only parts that are seen. The animal that we fired at was noticed for some time, but considered to be only a dead branch, although we were looking out for alligators, and approached within six yards of it before we found out our mistake: the length of this animal was from twelve to fifteen feet; I do not think that we have ever seen one more than twenty feet long.
We reached the cascade by four o'clock and remained there until our boats arrived for a second cargo of water, which was at midnight; as soon as the casks were filled, we set off on our return, but did not reach the brig until eight o'clock in the morning.
July 29.
The fatigue and exposure which attended our watering at this place were so great that I was obliged to give up the idea of completing it now. We had obtained, by the two trips, enough to last until the end of October, which, with the chance of finding more upon other parts of the coast, was sufficient for our intended mode of proceeding. The boats were therefore hoisted in, and preparations made to leave the anchorage.
The river appears to abound with fish, particularly with mullet; and porpoises were observed as high as the first falls, a distance of fifty miles from the sea. A curious species of mud-fish (chironectes sp.
Cuvier) was noticed, of amphibious nature, and something similar to what we have frequently before seen; these were, however, much larger, being about nine inches long. At low water the mud-banks near the cascade that were exposed by the falling tide were covered with these fish, sporting about, and running at each other with open mouths; but as we approached, they so instantaneously buried themselves in the soft mud that their disappearance seemed the effect of magic: upon our retiring and attentively watching the spot, these curious animals would re-appear as suddenly as they had before vanished. We fired at several, but so sudden were their motions that they generally escaped; two or three only were procured, which appeared from their lying on the mud in an inactive state to have been asleep; they are furnished with very strong pectoral and ventral fins with which and with the a.n.a.l fin, when required, they make a hole, into which they drop. When sporting on the mud, the pectoral fins are used like legs, upon which they move very quickly; but nothing can exceed the instantaneous movement by which they disappear. Those that were shot were taken on board, but on account of the extreme heat of the weather they had become so putrefied as to be totally unfit for preservation.
July 30.
The next day, the 30th, was spent in examining some bights in the narrow part of the channel near Gap Island, so named from a remarkable division in its centre, through which the high-tide flows, and gives it the appearance of being two islands. It was on this occasion that we explored Halfway Bay, where we were fortunate in finding good anchorage, and in which we also discovered a strait, that on a subsequent examination was found to communicate with Munster Water, and to insulate the land that forms the north-west sh.o.r.e of the bay: this island was called after the late Right Honourable Charles Greville, whose name has also been given to a family of plants (grevillea) that bears a prominent rank in the botany of this country. The strait, in which the tide was running at the rate of six or seven knots, was not more than one hundred and fifty yards wide; but in one part it was contracted to a much narrower compa.s.s, by a bed of rocks that nearly extended across the strait, and which must originally have communicated with the opposite sh.o.r.e.
We landed under the flat-topped hill, at the south end of Greville Island, among the mangroves which skirt the sh.o.r.e, and walked a few hundred yards round the point, to examine the course of the strait; but the way was so rugged, and we had so little time to spare, that we soon re-embarked and returned into Halfway Bay. The geological character of the island is a red-coloured, coa.r.s.e-granular, siliceous sandstone, disposed in horizontal strata, and intersected by veins of crystallised quartz. The surface is covered by a shallow, reddish-coloured soil, producing a variety of shrubs and plants.
After this we crossed the river, and examined the two bays opposite to Gap Island, but found them so shoal and overrun with mangroves that no landing could be effected in any part. In both bays there is anchorage between the heads; but all the inner part is very shoal, and perhaps at low water there is not more than nine feet water within the heads. In the mid-stream of the river the bottom is deep, and is formed entirely of sh.e.l.ls over which, on account of its being very narrow, the tide runs with great strength; and from the irregularity of the bottom forms numerous eddies and whirlpools, in which a boat is quite unmanageable.
During our absence, Mr. Bedwell examined our former watering-place, at the back of St. Andrew's Island, and on his return landed upon the sandy beach of a bay on the south-west side of the basin, but was unsuccessful in his search for water at both places.
The sea breeze freshened towards sunset, and fanned up the fires that had been burning for the last three days in several places upon the low land, and on the sides of the hills to the westward of Mount Trafalgar; before night they had all joined, and, spreading over the tops of the hills for a s.p.a.ce of three miles, produced a singularly grand and magnificent effect.
1821. August 1.
At half past five o'clock the next morning we were under sail but, the breeze being light, had only time to reach the anchorage under Greville Island in Halfway Bay, before the tide turned against us. It was purposed to remain only during the flood; but, on examination, the place was found to be so well adapted for the purpose of procuring some lunar distances with the sun, to correspond with those taken last year at Careening Bay, that we determined upon seizing the opportunity; and as wood was abundant on the island and growing close to the sh.o.r.es, a party was formed to complete our holds with fuel, whilst Mr. Roe a.s.sisted me in taking observations upon a convenient station on the north point of the bay within Lammas Island, a small rocky islet covered with shrubs, and separated from the easternmost point of Greville Island by a very shoal and rocky channel.
During these occupations we examined Munster Water: on our way to it we landed on the reef off the east end of the Midway Isles, which was found to be more extensive than had been suspected, and to embrace the group of small rocks, which at high-water only just show their summits above the water; at high-tide there is at least fifteen feet water over it, but being low-water when we landed, the reef was dry. Upon it we found several varieties of coral, particularly Explanaria mesenterina, Lam.; Caryophylla fastigata, Lam.; and Porites subdigitata, Lam.: the only sh.e.l.l that we observed upon the reef was a Delphinula laciniata, Lam.
(Turbo delphinus, Linn.). After obtaining bearings from its extremity, as also from the summit of the outer dry rock, we landed upon a small verdant-looking gra.s.sy mound, the northernmost islet of the group; but we found the verdure of its appearance was caused only by the abundance of the spinifex, through which we had, as usual, much difficulty in travelling. After procuring some bearings from its summit we re-embarked and pulled up Munster Water, supposing that it was connected with the strait at the back of Greville Island; but as the tide then flowing was running in a contrary direction to what was expected from the hypothesis we had formed, we began to suspect some other communication with the sea, and in this we were not deceived; for a narrow but a very deep strait opened suddenly to our view, at the bottom of the Water, through which some of the islands in the offing were recognised. In pulling through we had kept close to the south sh.o.r.e, that we might not miss the communication with Hanover Bay, but notwithstanding all our care we pa.s.sed by without noticing it, on account of the deceptious appearance of the land; indeed the strait which we discovered leading to sea was not seen until we were within two hundred yards of it, and would also have escaped our observation had not the channel been so direct that the sea horizon was exposed to our view. At the bottom of this arm are two deep bays which were partially but sufficiently examined. In most parts of Munster Water there is good anchorage amongst several small rocky islands, on one of which we landed, and climbed its summit, but saw nothing to repay us for the trouble or the danger of the ascent: the surface was composed entirely of loose blocks of sandstone, which, when trod upon, would crumble away or roll down the nearly perpendicular face of the rock; and it was only by grasping the branches of the acacias and other trees that were firmly rooted in the interstices of the less-decomposed rocks that we were saved from being precipitated with them. On our return we pa.s.sed through the channel on the west side of the Midway Isles which we found to be very deep and the stream very strong.
August 4.
The next day we pulled through the strait that insulates Greville Island, and found that it communicated with Munster Water at a part where we had yesterday concluded it likely to exist, and had in consequence steered towards it; but as we proceeded the probability became less and less, and we gave up the search when we were within three hundred yards of being actually in it.
We then pulled up Munster Water and afterwards through the strait to sea; and, landing on some dry rocks on a reef which projects off the west head of the strait, found that we were at the entrance of the bight, which was last year named Hanover Bay: after taking a set of bearings, we re-embarked and proceeded to the bottom of the bay which terminated in a shoal basin.
On our return we entered an opening in the rocky cliff which bore the appearance of being the outlet of a torrent stream; being low-water, there was not in many parts sufficient depth to float the boat; but after pulling up for half a mile, a muddy channel was found, which, at the end of another half mile, was terminated by a bed of rocks over which the tide flows at high-water. The ravine is formed by steep precipitous rocks which are at least two hundred and fifty feet high; it appeared to extend to a considerable distance, and as the farther progress of the boat was prevented by the stones and want of water, Bundell and two of the boat's crew were despatched to examine a place farther on, where, from the green appearance of the trees, it was thought not unlikely that there might be a fresh stream. In this they were not disappointed, for after much delay and trouble, from the difficulty of pa.s.sing over the rocks, they returned with two baricas full of fresh water, which they found in holes of considerable size.
In pulling up the river, an alligator was seen crawling slowly over the mud banks, but took to the water before we came near it and did not afterwards reappear. Many kangaroo-rats and small kangaroos were seen skipping about the rocks, but they were very shy, and fled the moment they saw us.
Hanover Bay thus proving to afford good anchorage and an opportunity of increasing our stock of water, as well as presenting a sandy beach on which we could haul the seine, it was determined that we should visit it as soon as the brig could be moved out of Prince Regent's River.
On our return, which was over the same ground as we had pa.s.sed in the morning, we landed near two or three gullies on the inner side of the island, which forms the eastern boundary of Munster Water, but were unsuccessful in all our searches after fresh water.
August 6.
At daylight on the 6th we got underweigh to a light air of wind from the southward, to leave Prince Regent's River; but notwithstanding the vessel was under all sail she was very nearly thrown upon Lammas Island by the tide, which was setting with great strength through the shoal pa.s.sage between it and Sight Point: as we pa.s.sed without it we were not more than five yards from the rocks. The wind then fell to a dead calm and the brig was perfectly immovable in the water; but, drifted by the tide and whirled round by the eddies, we were fast approaching the body of the largest Midway Island, with a very great uncertainty on which side of it the tide would drift us: when we were about three hundred yards from the island the direction of the stream changed and carried us round its south-east side, at about two hundred yards from the sh.o.r.e, but close to the low rocks off its east end, on which we landed two days since. We were under great anxiety for fear of being driven over the reef, on which there could not have been sufficient water to have floated us; but our fears of that danger were soon over for the tide swept us rapidly round it. At this moment a light air sprang up which lasted only five minutes, but it was sufficient to carry us past the junction of the Rothsay and Munster Waters with the main stream. The vessel was at times unmanageable from the violent whirlpools through which we pa.s.sed, and was more than once whirled completely round upon her keel; but our former experience of a similar event prepared us to expect it, and the yards were as quickly braced round.
Having pa.s.sed all the dangers, the ebb-tide very soon carried us out of the river into Hanover Bay. In pa.s.sing the easternmost of the outer isles, the shrill voices of natives were heard calling to us, and Bundell returned their shout, but it was some time before we could discern them on account of the very rugged nature of the island: at last three Indians were observed standing upon the rocks near the summit of the island but, as the tide was running out with great strength, we were soon out of hearing.
Soon after one o'clock the brig was anch.o.r.ed at about half a mile off the sandy beach in Hanover Bay, in eight fathoms (half flood) muddy bottom.