The Lady Nelson had returned from the hummocky island, without taking any
turtle. No good anchorage was found, nor was there either wood or water
upon the island, worth the attention of a ship. Mr. Murray ascended the
highest of the hummocks with a compass, but did not see any lands in the
offing further out than the Keppel Isles.

SATURDAY 14 AUGUST 1802

I left the ship again in the morning, and went up the southern arm to a
little hill on its western shore; hoping to gain from thence a better
knowledge of the various streams which intersect the low land on the
south side of the bay. This arm is one mile in width, and the depth in it
from 3 to 6 fathoms; the shores are flat, as in other parts, and covered
with mangroves; but at high water a landing was effected under the _South
Hill_, without much trouble. The sides of this little eminence are steep,
and were so thickly covered with trees and shrubs, bound together and
intertwisted with strong vines, that our attempts to reach the top were
fruitless. It would perhaps have been easier to climb up the trees, and
scramble from one to another upon the vines, than to have penetrated
through the intricate net work in the darkness underneath.

Disappointed in my principal object, and unable to do any thing in the
boat, which could not then approach the shore within two hundred yards, I
sought to walk upwards, and ascertain the communication between the south
and south-west arms; but after much fatigue amongst the mangroves and
muddy swamps, very little more information could be gained. The small
fish which leaps on land upon two strong breast fins, and was first seen
by captain Cook on the shores of Thirsty Sound, was very common in the
swamps round the South Hill. There were also numbers of a small kind of