In Evans Bay it may always be procured by digging behind the beach, especially at the foot of some low wooded hillocks, towards its western end.

Native wells were met with in most of the smaller bays, and the size of the dried-up watercourses indicates that during the wet season, a considerable body is carried off by them from the flats and temporary lagoons.
Were one inclined, from interested motives, to extol the natural capabilities of the immediate neighbourhood of Cape York, it would be very easy to speculate upon, and at once presume its peculiar fitness for the growth of tropical produce.

Thus, any swampy land might at once be pronounced peculiarly adapted for paddy fields, and the remainder as admirably suited to the growth of cotton, coffee, indigo, etc.

With the exception of a piece of rich soil, several acres in extent, on the eastern margin of a watercourse, leading from the small lagoon behind Evans Bay, and which would be a good site for a large garden, I did not see much ground that was fit for cultivation.

Very fine rich patches occur here and there in the brushes removed from the coast, but in the belts of brush along the beaches the soil, despite the accumulation of vegetable matter, is essentially poor and sandy.