Anchoring close to the southern shore, about three miles within the entrance, we set to work in good earnest with our surveying operations—­in the first place selecting a conspicuous spot for observation, from which all the meridians of our work in the western part of the Strait were to be measured.  For the sake of my nautical readers I may mention that the western extreme of the cliffy patches on the south shore of the bay, marks the place chosen.  The nature of our employment confining us to the neighbourhood of the entrance, we had no opportunity of visiting the town of Melbourne, situated near the northern side of the bay.  This capital of Australia Felix had for a long time been known to some squatters from Tasmania; but to Sir Thomas Mitchell the inhabitants must ever feel grateful for revealing to the world at large the fertility of the districts in its neighbourhood.  It is not a little singular that the attempt to form a settlement at this place in 1826 should have failed.  A fort was built and abandoned, and of the party of convicts who accompanied the expedition, two escaped and joined the natives, by whom one was murdered, whilst the other, contriving by some means to ingratiate himself with them, remained in their company until 1835, when he was discovered by the settlers from Tasmania.  During the eleven years he had passed in the bush, without coming in contact with any other European, he had entirely forgotten his own language, and had degenerated into a perfect savage.  His intellect, if he ever possessed much, had almost entirely deserted him; and nothing of any value could be gleaned from him respecting the history and manners of the tribe with whom he had so long dwelt.  He received his pardon and went to Hobart, but such was the indolence he had contracted that nothing could be made of him.

The southern shore of Port Phillip is a singular long narrow tongue of land, running out from the foot of the range of which Arthur’s Seat is the most conspicuous point.  I infer from the limestone prevailing in it, and containing shells of recent species, that it was once much beneath its present level; in fact, that it stops up what was formerly a broad mouth of the bay, leaving only the present narrow entrance at the western extremity.  Over its surface are scattered hills from one to two hundred feet in height, in the valleys between which was found some light sandy soil supporting at this time rich grass, and at various places a thin growth of Banksia, Eucalypti, and Casuarina, all stunted and showing symptoms of having been roughly used by the south wind.  Near the spot we had chosen for the centre of our observations was a well of inferior water, and we did not find any better in the neighbourhood.  The point in question therefore will never be very eligible as a settlement.  The kangaroos are numerous and large, and the finest snappers I have ever heard of are caught off this point, weighing sometimes as much as thirty pounds.  Our fishing experiments, however, were not very productive, being principally sharks; thirteen young ones were found in a single female of this species.