In a valley behind East Cove there was a stream of water, which strange to say was quite salt and came from the middle of the island.  In the same neighbourhood I turned loose about a dozen rabbits for the benefit of any unfortunate voyagers who might be thrown hungry ashore in this locality.  During the few days that we were there they appeared to thrive very well, and I have no doubt that if not disturbed the island will soon be overrun with them, there being no wallabies to offer molestation.

HOGAN GROUP.

We were not sorry to find ourselves one fine morning turning our backs on the scene of one of the Beagle’s many narrow escapes; so favourable did the weather continue, that, although in the first week in June, we were able to pass both the following nights at anchor in the middle of the strait;* on the first occasion between the Devil’s Tower and Curtis’s Island;** and on the second, five miles to the southward of Hogan Group.

(Footnote.  I gladly seized these opportunities of ascertaining exactly the set of the tides.  At the first anchorage they ran East-North-East and South-East only from half to a quarter of a knot, the latter beginning half an hour before low-water at Kent Group; at the second the tide set North-East by East, one knot, and South-South-West a knot and a half; the southerly stream began one hour and a half after low-water at Kent Group:  on both occasions there was a light westerly wind.

(**Footnote.  The central position of this island renders it quite a finger-post for ships passing through the Strait.  It has at the south end a square summit 1060 feet high, in latitude 39 degrees 28 minutes 20 seconds South, and longitude 4 degrees 33 minutes 45 seconds West of Sydney; towards the north it slopes away something in the shape of a shoe, from which it is called by the sealers The Slipper.  Two sugarloaf rocks, each 350 feet high, lie two miles and a half off its southern end.)

I landed on the largest island;* which I found to be a mile and a half in extent, inhabited by a number of dogs left by sealers, that had become quite wild; in a cave on the south-east point were some fur seals.  Two small islets front a boat-cove on the north-east side, where there is fresh water; and outside these there is a rock just awash.  The summit of the large island was a most important station; and with Lighthouse Hill at Kent Group, formed an astronomical base for the survey.

(Footnote.  The highest point I found to be in latitude 39 degrees 13 minutes 04 seconds South, and longitude 4 degrees 13 minutes 15 seconds west of Sydney; and 430 feet high.)

CORNER INLET.

From Hogan Group we stood to the northward, and were able to pass another night at anchor six miles from a low sandy shore, and fourteen to the eastward of Corner Inlet, which we found on examination had a bar extending off six miles from the entrance, on which at low tide there is water for vessels drawing sixteen and eighteen feet.  A group of islets, named from their utility Direction Isles, lies in the fairway, a few miles outside the bar.