in
the shape of a fresh meal, save a few black cockatoos and some of the
pigeons of a dark brown colour, with a white patch on the extremity of
the wing, which I have alluded to in the earlier part of the work
relating to King's Sound, as always inhabiting rocky districts and making
a whirring sound, like a partridge, on the wing.

LOSE TWO ANCHORS.

November 29.

This afternoon and the whole of the next day, when the tide suited, we
were endeavouring to weigh the ship's anchors; but they were together
with the cables so imbedded in the bottom, which must have been a
quicksand, that this proved impossible. Had the ship been fitted with
Captain Charles Phillips', R.N., capstan, there would have been a better
chance of succeeding. As it was, after heaving down the ship nineteen
inches by the head, and splitting the hawse pipes, we were ultimately
obliged to leave both behind, and thirty fathoms of cable with one and
fifteen with the other. This circumstance suggested the appropriate name
of Holdfast Reach for this locality; and perhaps in some future
generations, when this part of the world has undergone the changes that
seems destined for it, the archaeologist of Victoria River may in vain
puzzle his wits with speculations concerning the Beagle's anchors.

Whilst at this anchorage, just after dark, flocks of whistling ducks were
constantly heard passing over our heads in a South-West by West
direction, or towards the head of Cambridge Gulf, which led to the
supposition that there was a river in that neighbourhood. We placed the
south point of Water Valley in latitude 15 degrees 13 3/4 minutes South
and longitude 2 degrees 22 minutes West of Port Essington, variation one
degree easterly. Our tidal observation made the time of high-water, at
the full and change of the moon, 9 o'clock, when the mean rise at springs
was sixteen feet, and at neaps ten. The duration of the flood-stream was
seven hours, being two greater than the ebb. The former ran 50 minutes
after high-water, and the latter 30 minutes after low-water. Before
leaving Holdfast Reach, Lieutenant Emery observed one or two natives,
opposite Water Valley, being the only ones that had been seen from the
ship. He endeavoured to obtain an interview, by going up alone towards
them, but they drew off when he got near.

DROP DOWN THE RIVER.

December 1.

We slipped from our last anchor at daylight, and proceeded down the
river. After pirouetting through Whirlpo