300 SURVEY OF THE INTERTROPICAL ?s10. verse,. were obliged to make severa/tacks: .as bt? ?. we proceeded, the opening was found. to :get more contracted; and to wind through a very narrow strait between high precipitous hills; and as, on approaching it, the passage appeared too narrow to be' attempted with safety, we anchored at about two miles from it, near the low west bank; and ai?er breakfast, Mr. Cunningham.ac- compaaied me in the whale-bbat, to continue'its further exploration. The wind was blowing a fresh gale from .the S.W. directly out of the Gut,. and impeded us a good deal; but the tide was running with such strength, that we were' not long before we passed through. This passage is about two miles and a half long, bounded '. on either side by rocky barren hills, rising:abruptly from the water. The channel is deep, for our boat's lead-line of twenty fathoms did not reach the bottom. At the south end of the gut, the land opeued out into another basin, which, like the former, is surrounded by low land, overrun with man- groves, and studded with several islets, occa- sionally covered by the'tide. 'The course of the river still trended to the' south-west, in which direction we continued to pull, but fouud some diffic?ty from its being very shoal; 'for. in the fair way:across, there was not more water than
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