At dusk we hauled up south-east-by-south to the wind, at one in the morning [WEDNESDAY 27 JANUARY 1802] tacked to the westward, and at four bore away north for the land.  Having reached within six miles of the cliffs, we steered eastward again, with a fair breeze; and at noon were in latitude 31 deg. 40’ 52’ and longitude 130 deg. 59’; the cliffs were then distant seven miles to the northward, and at N. 9 deg.  E. was their termination.

The length of these cliffs, from their second commencement, is thirty-three leagues; and that of the level bank, from near Cape Pasley where it was first seen from the sea, is no less than one hundred and forty-five leagues.  The height of this extraordinary bank is nearly the same throughout, being no where less, by estimation, than four hundred, nor any where more than six hundred feet.  In the first twenty leagues the ragged tops of some inland mountains were visible over it; but during the remainder of its long course the bank was the limit of our view.

This equality of elevation for so great an extent, and the evidently calcareous nature of the bank, at least in the upper two hundred feet, would bespeak it to have been the exterior line of a vast coral reef, which is always more elevated than the interior parts, and commonly level with high-water mark.  From the gradual subsiding of the sea, or perhaps by a sudden convulsion of nature, this bank may have attained its present height above the surface; and however extraordinary such a change may appear, yet, when it is recollected that branches of coral still exist upon Bald Head, at the elevation of four hundred or more feet, this supposition assumes a great degree of probability; and it would further seem that the subsiding of the waters has not been at a period very remote, since these frail branches have yet neither been all beaten down nor mouldered away by the wind and weather.

If this supposition be well founded, it may, with the fact of no hill or other object having been perceived above the bank in the greater part of its course, assist in forming some conjecture of what may be within it; which cannot, as I judge in such case, be other than flat, sandy plains, or water.  The bank may even be a narrow barrier between an interior and the exterior sea, and much do I regret the not having formed an idea of this probability at the time; for notwithstanding the great difficulty and risk, I should certainly have attempted a landing upon some part of the coast to ascertain a fact of so much importance.

At the termination of the bank and of the second range of cliffs the coast became sandy, and trended north-eastward about three leagues; after which it turned south-east-by-east, and formed the head of the Great Australian Bight, whose latitude I make to be 31 deg. 29’ south, and longitude 131 deg. 10’ east.  In the chart of admiral D’Entrecasteaux the head of the Great Bight is placed in 31 deg. 36’ and