The mistake arose thus:  I carried Captain King’s chart, and having only a Kater’s compass with me, on recognizing what I considered to be Mount Fairfax, I assumed the latitude of that hill as laid down on the chart to be my true latitude, and made an entry in my journal accordingly.

On substituting the name of Mount Fairfax for Wizard Hill, the description of the small portions of the country traversed by us in common, will be found to coincide almost exactly...I am, my dear Sir, yours faithfully, G. GREY.

I need scarcely add, that Captain Grey having been obliged to assume his latitude, none of his positions, during this harassing journey, can be expected to be accurate.)

MOUTH OF THE GREENOUGH.

From this point we proceeded one mile west over a dry, arid plain, covered with yellow and white everlasting flowers of small growth:  a little patch of woodland, consisting of a species of wattle and a very small kind of gum, here delayed our progress.  The ground beneath these trees was entirely barren of vegetation; but emerging from them, we came upon the only piece of grass of a useful nature seen in the route; it was, however, quite parched, and occupied a space only of three or four acres.  From thence to the coast dunes, to reach which we made a detour to the South-West walking over about six miles of country, all was scrub and sand.  On the low ridge, lying immediately behind the coast range of sandhills, limestone occasionally cropped out.  Embarking, we proceeded in a boat to examine a small estuary, seen from Mount Fairfax, at the northern part of the bay.  This we found to be separated from the sea by a low bank of sand, thirty feet wide and five high, over which the sea appeared in gales to enter; but from the manner in which the sandhills overlapped at the mouth, it was not possible to detect the entrance from seawards.  We landed and traced it for a mile in an east direction, until we proved it to be the mouth of the Greenough; the water was entirely salt, and the banks, in some places seventy feet high, were composed of limestone.  Near the head of this estuary we discovered the place where Captain Grey crossed it, as described in the following extract from his notes communicated to Lord John Russell, then Secretary for the Colonies.

CHARACTER OF COUNTRY.

“The character of the country again changed, and for the next two miles and a half the plains were sandy, and covered with scrub.  At the end of another mile we reached a river, about twenty-five yards wide; it was salt where we made it, and it was so shallow, that we soon found a place where, by jumping from rock to rock, we could cross it.  This river discharged itself into a bay;* it ran rather from the South of East. [East of South?] Four miles further, South by East, were sandy plains, with scrub, etc.”