If a line be drawn from the south-western extremity of New Holland, to King’s Island in Bass’ Strait, it will show where the current may be expected to run strongest; though it will not be equally strong at those parts of the line which are distant from the land, as at those in its immediate vicinity.  In drawing another line, from the north-eastern isles of the Archipelago of the Recherche to Cape Northumberland, we shall have what will commonly be the northern boundary of the current; for within this line the water does not seem to run in any constant direction, but is moved according as the wind may happen to blow.  This was found by admiral D’Entrecasteaux; and is conformable to my experience, as I shall now explain.

It has been said, that the eastwardly current was found in May and December to run twenty-seven miles per day, from Cape Leeuwin past King George’s Sound.  From thence to a little beyond the Archipelago of the Recherche, keeping in with the shore, I found it to set north-east thirteen miles; and at a distance from the coast, it ran north-east-by-east sixteen miles per day, the wind being more from the south than from the northward in both cases.

In coasting from the Archipelago, all round the Great Bight and as far south-eastward as to Cape Northumberland, I had no determinate current; it generally followed the impulsion given to it by the winds, and was inconsiderable.  From the middle of January to the middle of April, the winds were most prevalent from south-south-east to east-north-east; coming more from the land at night, and from the sea in the day time.  They seldom had any strength; whereas the winds which occasionally blew from the westward were fresh, and sometimes became gales, veering in that case, invariably to the south-west.

On reaching Cape Northumberland I again found the eastwardly current; and from thence into Bass’ Strait it ran N. 80 deg.  E., at the rate of twelve miles a day, the wind blowing strong from the south-westward in the latter part of the time.

In a subsequent run across the Great Bight in May, from the Archipelago nearly direct for Bass’ Strait, the current set upon the average, N. 39 deg.  E. fourteen miles a day; appearing to be much influenced in its northern direction by the winds blowing strong from the southward.  Mr. Dalrymple, in reasoning from the analogy of southern Africa, expected that the winds upon this coast would be found to blow from the northward, or off the shore, in the winter time, and this might possibly be the case if close in with the land; but at a distance from it, as just observed, the winds were from the southward.