CHAPTER 1.9.  BASS STRAIT.

Leave Sydney. 
Enter Bass Strait. 
Island at Eastern entrance. 
Wilson’s Promontory. 
Cape Shanck. 
Enter Port Phillip. 
Tide-race. 
Commence Surveying Operations. 
First Settlement. 
Escaped Convict. 
His residence with the Natives. 
Sail for King Island. 
Examine Coast to Cape Otway. 
King Island. 
Meet Sealers on New Year Islands. 
Franklin Road. 
Solitary Residence of Captain Smith. 
Soil. 
Advantageous position for a Penal Settlement. 
Leafless appearance of Trees. 
Examine West Coast. 
Fitzmaurice Bay. 
Stokes’ Point. 
Seal Bay. 
Geological Formation. 
Examine Coast to Sea Elephant Rock. 
Brig Rock. 
Cross the Strait to Hunter Island. 
Strong Tide near Reid’s Rocks. 
Three Hummock Island. 
Rats. 
The Black Pyramid. 
Point Woolnorth. 
Raised Beach. 
Coast to Circular Head. 
Headquarters of the Agricultural Company. 
Capture of a Native. 
Mouth of the Tamar River. 
Return to Port Phillip. 
West Channel. 
Yarra-yarra River. 
Melbourne. 
Custom of Natives. 
Manna. 
Visit Geelong. 
Station Peak. 
Aboriginal Names. 
South Channel. 
Examine Western Port. 
Adventure with a Snake. 
Black Swans. 
Cape Patterson. 
Deep Soundings. 
Revisit King and Hunter Islands. 
Fire. 
Circular Head. 
Gales of Wind. 
Reid’s Rocks. 
Sea Elephant Rock. 
Wild Dogs. 
Navarin and Harbinger Reefs. 
Arrive at Port Phillip. 
Sail for Sydney. 
Pigeon House. 
Drought. 
Mr. Usborne leaves.

Before quitting Sydney I must express my gratitude for the hospitality we experienced during our stay, which prepared us with greater cheerfulness to encounter the difficulties we might expect to meet with in the boisterous waters that rolled between the then imperfectly known shores, and islands of Bass Strait.  It was not until the 11th of November that we bade adieu to our friends, and sailed to commence our contemplated operations.  On the 14th we passed the rocky islands (Kent’s Group) at the eastern entrance of the Strait, their barren and bleak appearance bespoke the constant gales that swept over them, checking every tendency to vegetation.  As we approached them the soundings decreased to 28 fathoms, the observation of which fact apprises vessels coming from the eastward in thick weather, of their proximity.  After leaving these islands we progressed but slowly, and the passage through the Strait promised to be tedious:  yet, as the wind was fair and the weather fine, we had no reason to complain, considering moreover the remarkably mild reception we met with in the Funnel, the name commonly and most appropriately given by the colonists to Bass Strait, from the constant strong winds that sweep through it.

WILSON’S PROMONTORY.