JOURNAL OF A TOUR IN THE NORTH
At 5 p.m., at the head of the Gulf—Port Wakefield, which is a very small creek of about 30 feet, in some few spots 60 feet wide, dry at low water, except in one or two holes. The great sand-flat, forming an impassable barrier to any vessel drawing six feet at high water, extends from two to three miles all around. Government has spent about £1,000 in dredging a channel into the creek ; but, owing to a limestone bottom, the work has been discontinued. The excavation is about 300 yards long : it is very shallow, and rapidly filling up. The creek winds considerably. The Patent Copper Company, who—to use [the] colonial expression—are “all the go,” have here deepened the creek in parts, and constructed a valuable wharf for their barges. The township is situated upon a bottom of clay, sand, and broken shell, and covered with a thick scrub, mangrove, and salsolaceous plants. Mosquitoes, sandflies, fleas, &c., are the annoyances at the present time, but they will soon disappear as it becomes more settled. There are about nine houses of tolerable size— one or two built of limestone, the rest of pine logs and broad palings. The accommodation at the public-house is very good, the host and hostess very obliging, everything a shilling, and a Christmas dinner for nothing.