t Darwin.
Tides.
Squall.
Visit Port Patterson.
Leave.
Examine opening to the south-west.
Table Hill.
McAdam Range.
Adventure with an Alligator.
Exploring party.
Discovery of the Victoria.
Ascend the river.
Appearance of the Country.
Fitzmaurice River.
Indian Hill.
The Beagle taken up the river.

LEAVE PORT ESSINGTON.

Early on the morning of the 4th of September, 1839, the Beagle was once
more slipping out of Port Essington before a light land wind. We had
taken a hearty farewell of our friends at Victoria, in whose prosperity
we felt all the interest that is due to those who pioneer the way for
others in the formation of a new settlement. No doubt the hope that our
discoveries might open a new field for British enterprise, and contribute
to extend still more widely the blessings of civilization, increased the
sympathy we felt for the young colony at Victoria. There is always a
feeling of pride and pleasure engendered by the thought that we are in
any way instrumental to the extension of man's influence over the world
which has been given him to subdue. In the present instance, the success
of our last cruise and the state of preparation in which we were now in
for a longer one, caused us to take our departure from Port Essington in
far higher spirits than on the former occasion.

PASS THROUGH CLARENCE STRAIT.

We again shaped our course for Clarence Strait, the western entrance of
which was still unexamined. The wind, however, being light, we passed the
night in Popham Bay; and on leaving next morning, had only six fathoms in
some tide ripplings nearly two miles off its south point, Cape Don. We
passed along the south side of Melville Island, where a large fire was
still burning. Early in the evening we anchored in seven fathoms, to wait
for a boat that had been sent to examine a shoal bay on the North-West
side of Cape Keith. Green Ant Cliffs bore South-West two miles.

September 7.

Weighing at daylight we hauled up south, into the middle of the channel,
crossing a ridge of 5 1/2 fathoms; Ant Cliffs bearing West-South-West
five miles, and three or four from the shore. This ridge appears to be
thrown up at the extremity of the flats fronting the shore. On deepening
the water to 10 and 12 fathoms, the course was changed to West 1/2 South,
passing midway between North Vernon Isle and Cape Gambier, where the
width of the channel is seven miles, though the whole of it is not
available for the purposes of n