A sugar-loaf-shaped hill, which was also visible from the anchorage, bore South 80 degrees East; at the distance of a league was a rocky hill that bore North 88 1/4 degrees East; and, five or six leagues off, was a range of hills extending from East by South to South 27 degrees East.

In all other directions the eye wandered over a dreary, low, and uninterruptedly flat country; which in most parts is covered with an arundinaceous grass.
The mangrove bushes on the banks of the river, which was quite salt, were crowded with the nests of an egret, in which the young birds were nearly fledged.

Hawks, wild ducks, pelicans, and pigeons, were also abundant, and an immense flight of white cockatoos hovered over the mangroves, and quite disturbed the air with their hideous screamings.

A small black water-bird, about the size of a pigeon, with a white neck and a black ring round it, was observed, but not near enough to enable us to ascertain its species.

On our course up and down the river we encountered several very large alligators, and some were noticed sleeping on the mud.
This was the first time we had seen these animals, excepting that at Goulburn Island, and, as they appeared to be very numerous and large, it was not thought safe to stop all night up the river, which we must have done had we remained for the next flood-tide.
No inhabitants were seen, but the fires that were burning in all directions proved that they could not be far off.
May 7.
The next morning we were underweigh and steering along the coast to the westward towards a low but extensive island; and, as we approached, we found that it fronted a very considerable opening in the land, extending into the interior under the eastern base of Mount Hooper.