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80 SIXTEEN MILE CREEK. to the creek, rendering it accessible .by day and night. If Colonel Gawler, in effecting these and other improve ments, has plunged the colony into a debt of 200,000/., it will be satisfactory to his friends to know that the money has not been ill laid out. We found fresh water to be rather a scarce article, there being no well or stream within the distance of several miles. At a subsequent period, during the hot summer of 1839-40, fresh water became here, as in Sydney, an article of traffic, and bore a high price. In Adelaide, it was usually retailed at 3<Z. per bucket, but in the port a greater demand and, I believe, a higher price were created by the presence of the shipping. Brackish water may be generally procured by digging in sand beaches, just be yond high-water mark, and ship-captains were sometimes compelled to have recourse to this expedient. The fine inlet, named, from its length, the Sixteen Mile Creek, has sufficient breadth and depth to float a numer ous navy, consisting of the largest-sized merchantmen. It runs in a southerly direction, nearly parallel with the shore, from which it is separated by a long and narrow peninsula, and sends off numerous ramifications, of great breadth and depth, which, in their tortuous course, en close islands. The extensive flat on each side of the Sixteen Mile Creek is usually called the Mangrove Swamp. This name conveys an erroneous impression regarding it, for instead of being marshy, it has a dry, sandy surface, thickly covered with a peculiar salsolaceous vegetation, but devoid of grasses, and subject to occasional overflows by spring tides. The course of the main creek and its various off shoots is marked by a belt or fringe of dense mangrove