(Footnote.  I have since heard from Mr. Earl, that the women in the South-East part of Van Diemen’s Gulf, occasionally wear a covering round their waist, somewhat similar to the representation given.)

Baskets were also left hanging on the trees, bespeaking the honesty of the inhabitants of this part of the country.

The land near the huts was turned up in search of roots, and close by were some large clubs.  The thermometer fell in the night to 67 degrees, producing the novel though pleasant sensation of cold.

July 27.

Although apparently we could trace the land, near the head of the opening or bay, still the great set of tide in that direction, left hopes of its being the mouth of a river.  We have already alluded to the difficulty of detecting the mouth of Australian streams, and the doubts thus engendered occasioned the greater anxiety.

Impatient to learn the truth, Mr. Fitzmaurice was despatched to examine the head of the bay, whilst the ship was moved towards it, anchoring again one mile North-West from a very remarkable patch of low red cliffs (which from startling circumstances, hereafter to be related, were called Escape Cliffs) and only two cables length distant from the coral ledge, by which this and the shores around were fronted.

VISIT THE SHORE.

Here another party visited the shore, and those whose occupation did not render their presence necessary near the water, strolled into the country, penetrating about four or five miles inland, but they were rewarded by the sight of no novelty, or even variety in the scenery, beyond what was presented to our view on the visit to Cape Hotham, which it will readily be allowed was little enough.  Indeed it will in general be found, that in Australia, a change of formation is necessary to produce any of the scenery, which otherwise exhibits a most monotonous sameness.

A coarse kind of ironstone gravel was (if I may use the term) scattered over the face of the country; some of it had a glazed appearance on the surface, being hollow within, and about the size of a musket ball.  Properly speaking they are composed of a ferruginous sandstone, but they have been already more fully alluded to when first met with at Point Cunningham, near King’s Sound, on the North-West coast.  The general formation is the same as at Cape Hotham, itself almost identical with the rocks at Port Essington.  A few traces of small kangaroos were seen; but not a bird or any other living thing two miles from the beach.  This peculiarity the reader will remember was also noticed in the neighbourhood of King’s Sound.

DISCOVERY OF ADELAIDE RIVER.

On returning to the ship we found that Mr. Fitzmaurice had arrived, bringing the expected, and very gratifying intelligence, that a large river with two branches, running South-East and South, with a depth of four fathoms, emptied itself into the head of the bay.  The joy a discovery of this nature imparts to the explorer, when examining a country so proverbially destitute of rivers as Australia, is much more easily imagined than described.  It formed a species of oasis amid the ordinary routine of surveying, rousing our energies, and giving universal delight.  The castle-builders were immediately at work, with expectations beyond the pale of reason.