The coast consists of precipitous banks [photo taken in August 2003], similar in structure to the bituminous-shale cliffs at Whitby, Yorkshire. They gradually increase in altitude from Cape Bathurst, and near our encampment their height exceeded two hundred and fifty feet. The shale was in a state of ignition in many places, and the hot sulphureous airs from the land were strongly contrasted with the cold sea-breezes with which, in the morning, they alternated. . . . We embarked at half-past two on the morning of the 20th, and ran alongshore for two hours with a strong and favourable breeze, when some shoals lying off the mouth of a pretty large river, led us six or seven miles from the coast. The breeze, which was off the land, freshened considerably, and raised a short breaking sea, through which we attempted to pull towards the shore, but the boats shipped much water, and made little head-way. We, therefore, set the sails again, and, fortunately, fetched under a head-land, and effected a landing. The whole of the pemmican in the Union, and some of that in the Dolphin, was wet on this occasion. . . The cliffs at our encampment consisted of slate-clay, and bituminous alum-slate, and were six hundred feet high. The river, whose mouth we passed, ran close behind them, having a course parallel to the coast for some miles before it makes its way to the sea. It was named Wilmot Horton River [photo taken in August 2003], in honour of the Under Secretary of State for the Colonial Department. Its breadth is about three hundred yards, and it seems, from the quantity of drift-timber that was piled on the shoals of its mouth, to flow through a wooded country. [Richardson, pp. 231-232.]