The whole of this land is high, the elevation of the uppermost parts being not less than two thousand feet.  The rising hills were covered with wood of a deep green foliage, and without any vacant spaces of rock or sand; so that I judged this part of the coast to exceed in fertility all that had yet fallen under observation.

Cape Otway lies very nearly in latitude 38 deg. 51’ south and longitude 143 deg. 29’ east.  The width of the north-west entrance to Bass’ Strait, between this cape on the north and King’s Island to the south, is therefore sixteen leagues; and with the trifling exception of the Harbinger’s Reefs, which occupy not quite two leagues of the southern part, the passage is free from danger.  In such parts of it as we got soundings the depth was between 38 and 50 fathoms.

At noon, the wind had veered to the south-east, which being directly upon the shore, I did not think it prudent to follow the land too closely; and we therefore kept up nearly to the wind.  In the course of the afternoon, land came in sight to the eastward; and the bearings taken at sunset were these: 

Furthest extreme towards C. Otway,                      S. 73 deg.  W.
Furthest connected part to the northward,               N. 18  W.
Two small distant peaks,                                N.  1  W.
Bluff head, like the N. end of an island,               N. 63  E.
Extreme of the eastern land,                            N. 83  E.

Between the first and last of these bearings there was a deep bight formed, at the head of which no other land than the two small peaks could be perceived.

MONDAY 26 APRIL 1802

In the morning we kept close to an east-south-east wind, steering for the land to the north-eastward; and at nine o’clock captain Grant’s Cape Schanck, the extreme of the preceding evening, was five leagues distant to the N. 88 deg.  E., and a rocky point towards the head of the bight bore N. 12 deg.  E. On coming within five miles of the shore at eleven o’clock we found it to be low, and mostly sandy, and that the bluff head which had been taken for the north end of an island was part of a ridge of hills rising at Cape Schanck.  We then bore away westward in order to trace the land round the head of the deep bight; and a noon, the situation of the ship and principal bearings were as under: 

Latitude observed, 38 deg. 22’
Longitude by time keepers, 144 311/2
Cape Schanck, S. 68 deg.  E.
The rocky point, distant 6 or 7 miles, N. 48 E.
Highest of two inland peaks, N. 15 W.
A square-topped hill near the shore, N. 28 W.
Extr. of the high land towards C. Otway, S. 56 W.