Our examination of the gulph of St. Vincent was now finished; and the country round it had appeared to be generally superior to that on the borders of Spencer’s Gulph.  Yorke’s Peninsula between them is singular in its form, bearing some resemblance to a very ill-shaped leg and foot.  The length of the southern part, from Cape Spencer to the sandy point near Troubridge Shoal, is about forty-five miles; and from thence northward, to where the peninsula joins the main land, about sixty miles.  Its least breadth is from the head of Hardwicke Bay to the Investigator’s Strait, where it appears to be not more than three leagues.

[SOUTH COAST. KANGAROO ISLAND]

Having now made myself acquainted with the shores of the continent up to Cape Jervis, it remained to pursue the discovery further eastward; but I wished to ascertain previously whether any error had crept into the time-keepers’ rates since leaving Kangaroo Island, and also to procure there a few more fresh meals for my ship’s company.  Our course was in consequence directed for the island, which was visible from aloft; but the winds being very feeble, we did not pass Kangaroo Head until eleven at night.  I purposed to have run up into the eastern cove of Nepean Bay, but finding the water to shoal from 12 to 7 fathoms, did not think it safe to go further in the dark, and therefore dropped the anchor about three-quarters of a mile from the shore, and two miles to the south-west-by-west of our former anchorage.

FRIDAY 2 APRIL 1802

Early on the following morning a party was sent to shoot kangaroos, another to cut wood, and the naturalists went to pursue their researches.  The observations taken by lieutenant Flinders, compared with those of March 24th, showed the timekeepers to have erred 2’ 10” of longitude to the west in the nine days we had been absent; and they had not, consequently, lost quite so much upon a medium as the Port Lincoln rates supposed.  This small error, which principally affected the Gulph of St. Vincent, has been corrected in the longitudes there specified and in the chart by an equal proportion.

The kangaroos were found to be less numerous than at the first anchoring place, and they had become shy, so that very few were killed.  Those few being brought off, with a boat load of wood, we got under way at daylight next morning to prosecute the examination of the coast beyond Cape Jervis; but the timekeepers had stopped, from having been neglected to be wound up on the preceding day.  We therefore came to an anchor again; and as some time would be required to fix new rates, the ship was moored so soon as the flood tide made.  I landed immediately, to commence the necessary observations, and a party was established on shore, abreast of the ship, to cut more wood for the holds.  Lieutenant Fowler was sent in the launch to the eastward, with a shooting party and such of the scientific gentlemen as chose to accompany him; and there being skins wanted for the service of the rigging, he was directed to kill some seals.