Our return to the ship was a good deal retarded by going after the black swans and ducks amongst the flats.  The swans were all able to fly, and would not allow themselves to be approached; but some ducks of two or three different species were shot, and also several sea pies or red bills.  Another set of bearings was taken on the western shore, and at ten in the evening we reached the ship, where Mr. Brown and his party had not been long arrived.  The ascent of Mount Brown had proved to be very difficult, besides having to walk fifteen miles on a winding course before reaching the foot; by perseverance, however, they gained the top at five on the first evening, but were reduced to passing the night without water; nor was any found until they had descended some distance on the following day.  The view from the top of Mount Brown was very extensive, its elevation being not less than three thousand feet; but neither rivers nor lakes could be perceived, nor anything of the sea to the south-eastward.  In almost every direction the eye traversed over an uninterruptedly flat, woody country; the sole exceptions being the ridge of mountains extending north and south, and the water of the gulph to the south-westward.

Mr. Brown found the stone of this ridge of craggy mountains to be argillaceous, similar to that of the flat-topped land where I had taken bearings on the west side of the inlet.  It is reddish, smooth, close-grained, and rather heavy.  Bushes and some small trees grown in the hollows of the rising hills; and between their feet and the mangrove swamps near the water there was some tolerably good though shallow soil.

We had seen fires upon the eastern shore opposite to Point Lowly on first entering the head of the gulph, and wherever I had landed there were traces of natives; Mr. Brown found them even to a considerable height up the side of the mountain; and it should therefore seem that the country here is as well inhabited as most parts of Terra Australis, but we had not the good fortune to meet with any of the people.

The observations taken by lieutenant Flinders fixed the position of the ship in latitude 32 deg. 44’ 41” south, and longitude by the time keepers 137 deg. 49’ 56” east.  Twelve sets of distances of the sun and moon gave 137 deg. 50’ 9”; but these being all on one side, the time keepers are preferred.  Azimuths observed from the binnacle, when the ship’s head was between S. by E. and S. S. E., gave 0 deg. 42’ east, or 1 deg. 37’ east, nearly, for the true variation; and there was no particular attraction upon the theodolite at any of my stations on shore.

We had two flood tides in the day setting past the ship, and they ran at the strongest one mile and a half per hour; the rise appeared to be from six to eight feet, and high water to take place at two hours and a half after the moon passed the meridian.  Except in the time of high water, which is considerably later than at Thorny Passage, the tides at the head have a near affinity to those at the entrance of the gulph; whence the great differences at Port Lincoln, intermediately situate, become so much the more extraordinary.