to the southward of it.  The hills forming the opposite side of the valley had already terminated.  Captain Barker, therefore, ascended to higher ground, and, at length, obtained a view of the Lake Alexandrina, and the channel of its communication with the sea to the N.E.  He now descended to the flat, and frequently expressed his anxious wish to Mr. Kent that I had been one of their number to enjoy the beauty of the scenery around them, and to participate in their labours.  Had fate so ordained it, it is possible the melancholy tragedy that soon after occurred might have been averted.

Outlet of lake to the sea.

At the termination of the flat they found themselves upon the banks of the channel, and close to the sand hillock under which my tents had been pitched.  From this point they proceeded along the line of sand-hills to the outlet; from which it would appear that Kangaroo Island is not visible, but that the distant point which I mistook for it was the S.E. angle of Cape Jervis.  I have remarked, in describing that part of the coast, that there is a sand-hill to the eastward of the inlet, under which the tide runs strong, and the water is deep.  Captain Barker judged the breadth of the channel to be a quarter of a mile, and he expressed a desire to swim across it to the sand-hill to take bearings, and to ascertain the nature of the strand beyond it to the eastward.

It unfortunately happened, that he was the only one of the party who could swim well, in consequence of which his people remonstrated with him on the danger of making the attempt unattended.  Notwithstanding, however, that he was seriously indisposed, he stripped, and after Mr. Kent had fastened his compass on his head for him, he plunged into the water, and with difficulty gained the opposite side; to effect which took him nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds.  His anxious comrades saw him ascend the hillock, and take several bearings; he then descended the farther side, and was never seen by them again.

Circumstances attending the loss of captain Barker.

For a considerable time Mr. Kent remained stationary, in momentary expectation of his return; but at length, taking the two soldiers with him, he proceeded along the shore in search of wood for a fire.  At about a quarter of a mile, the soldiers stopped and expressed their wish to return, as their minds misgave them, and they feared that Captain Barker had met with some accident.  While conversing, they heard a distant shout, or cry, which Mr. Kent thought resembled the call of the natives, but which the soldiers positively declared to be the voice of a white man.  On their return to their companions, they asked if any sounds had caught their ears, to which they replied in the negative.  The wind was blowing from the E.S.E., in which direction Captain Barker had gone; and, to me, the fact of the nearer party not having heard that which must have been his cries for assistance, is satisfactorily accounted for, as, being immediately under the hill, the sounds must have passed over their heads to be heard more distinctly at the distance at which Mr. Kent and the soldiers stood.  It is more than probable, that while his men were expressing their anxiety about him, the fearful tragedy was enacting which it has become my painful task to detail.