Middle back mount, N. 61 deg.  W.
Barn Hill on the east side, S. 74 E.
A more southern hill, S. 38 E.

Mount Br own was no longer visible; but it had been seen this afternoon at the distance of fifty-eight miles, and was sufficiently above the horizon to have been distinguished some miles further from a ship’s deck in a perfectly clear day.

MONDAY 15 MARCH 1802

On the morning of the 15th the wind had shifted to south-east; and the great bank then trending south-westward, we followed it with variable soundings between 3 and 10 fathoms.  At ten o’clock the water had deepened to 15; and being then nearer to the west than to the east side of the gulph, and the wind having come more ahead, we tacked to the east-south-east; but in fifty minutes were obliged to steer westward again, having fallen into 3 fathoms on the edge of the bank.  This is the narrowest part of the gulph below Point Lowly, the two shores being scarcely more than twenty miles asunder; and of this space, the great eastern bank, if the part where we last had 3 fathoms be connected with it, occupies about eleven, and the shallow water of the west side one or two miles.  The soundings we had in stretching westward across the deep channel were, from the shoal, 3, 5, 7, 10, 12, 12, 12, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 7, 6, 5 fathoms, at nearly equal distances asunder, and the last at six miles from the western land.

After sounding across the channel we stood back, lying up south-east, and reached within five miles of the eastern shore, where the anchor was dropped in 41/2 fathoms; Barn Hill bearing N. 69 deg.  E., and a cliffy projection, named Point Riley after the gentleman of that name in the Admiralty, S. 14 deg.  W., two or three leagues.  This point was the furthest visible part of the eastern shore; and so low and uniform had the coast been from the head of the gulph, that this was the first mark I had found upon it for the survey.  The great eastern bank, which we had already followed about sixty miles, seemed to terminate at Point Riley; and from thence southward the gulph greatly enlarges its breadth.  The situation of the point is about 33 deg. 53’ south and 137 deg. 30’ E.

TUESDAY 16 MARCH 1802

We got under way at six in the morning, and the wind being from the south-eastward made a good stretch along the coast until noon.  A patch of breakers then lay five miles to the south-east; but the land was ten miles distant, and some white sandy cliffs, four or five leagues from Point Riley, bore S. 52 deg.  E. The intermediate coast, as also that which extends several leagues to the north of the point, is low and sandy; but at a few miles back it rises to a level land of moderate elevation, and is not ill clothed with small trees.  In the afternoon we had to beat against a southern wind; and the coast in that part being too open for anchorage, this was continued all night and the next morning [WEDNESDAY 17 MARCH 1802]; but with so little profit that the same land was still in sight at noon, and our situation found to be as follows