mass.

Speaking in general terms of Shoal-water Bay, I do not conceive it to
offer any advantages to ships which may not be had upon almost any other
part of the coast; except that the tides rise higher, and in the winter
season fish are more plentiful than further to the south. No fresh water
was found, unless at a distance from the shore, and then only in small
quantities. Pine trees are plentiful; but they grow upon the stony hills
at a distance from the water side, and cannot be procured with any thing
like the facility offered by Port Bowen. The chart contains the best
information I am able to give of the channels leading up the bay, and of
the shoals between them; but it may be added, that no alarm need be
excited by a ship getting aground, for these banks are too soft to do
injury. The shelving flats from the shores are also soft; and with the
mangroves, which spread themselves from high water at the neaps, up in
the country to the furthest reach of the spring tides, in some places for
miles, render landing impossible in the upper parts of the bay, except at
some few spots already noticed.

Were an English settlement to be made in Shoal-water Bay, the better soil
round Pine Mount and the less difficulty in landing there, would cause
that neighbourhood to be preferred. There is not a sufficient depth at
low water, for ships to go into the West Bight, by the south side of
Aken's Island, and the north side was no otherwise sounded than in
passing; but there is little doubt that the depth on the north side is
adequate to admit ships, and that some parts of the bight will afford
anchorage and good shelter.

The tides do not run strong in Shoal-water Bay, the rate seldom exceeding
one knot; but they stir up the soft mud at the bottom., and make the
water thick, as in Keppel Bay. I am not able to speak very accurately of
the rise in the tide; but it may be reckoned at twelve or fourteen feet
at the neaps, and from seventeen to eighteen at the springs. High water
takes place about _ten hours and a half after_ the moon's passage; but on
the east side of the bay, the flood runs up a full hour later.

The _latitude_ of the north-east end of Aken's Island, from an
observation in the artificial horizon, is 22 deg. 21' 35" south.

_Longitude_ from twelve sets of distances of the sun and moon, taken by
lieutenant Flinders, and reduced to the same place, 150 deg. 18' 45"; but
from the survey, and the position afterwards fixe