Volume I Part 17 (1/2)

Our hopes were considerably raised on reaching the top of this islet, by finding that we looked in vain for land towards the head of Collier Bay; the high land to the southward proved to be the south point of a large bay, having on its northern side sies

LIZARDS

This island was overrun with a great variety of lizards, in consequence of which we na our stay here, two birds,

rare on this part of the coast, were shot; they were of a smaller kind than any I had before seen, and differed fro without the white collar round the neck Leaving Lizard Island, we continued our southerly route, and ere long sawlike a blue cloud on the horizon Ten h land we had first seen, and sixon its south-western side, where the duties of the survey again obliged us to land We considered ourselves now entering oncecould scarcely have had even a distant gli abreast of Freshwater Cove, from whence he describes the view of the coast as follows ”The land to the southward trended deeply in, and appeared to me much broken in its character” We therefore naturally looked on everything here with a greater degree of interest, and with the view of affording time to examine the country, and detered to pass the night in its vicinity

(Footnote Hae's work on Australia)

HEAD OF COLLIER BAY

The view fro leading into the interior from Collier Bay, for we could trace the land all round the head of it, forle break

This malapropos discovery, materially diminished the pleasure we had before experienced, on first seeing a new part of the continent About twenty roup of islands, which I was able to identify as those seen fro's Sound; they appeared to extend about ten miles in a northerly direction, from the western point of Collier Bay

AN EAGLE SHOT

Whilst using the theodolite, we cale, which soaring over our heads for souns, when he paid for his curiosity with the loss of his life This was the only rapacious birdin Collier Bay, and appears to be of the species Falco leucogaster Latham On examination, the stomach contained fish and part of a small snake, and from what I have since observed this bird frequents the sea coast Their nests are very large, built on bare spots in the shape of a pyra three feet in diah To convey a better idea of the size and exposed situation of the nests of these birds, I may state that on low parts of the coast, they were often used as surveying le Point, is of a siliceous sandstone formation, intersected by nearly vertical veins of quartz, and fore four miles to the south-eastward We did not find any water in the few miles of country traversed in the course of the afternoon, yet everything wore a rich green appearance, and the scenery in some of the dells we crossed, was very picturesque, and quite alive with birds and insects; flights of many-coloured parakeets swept by with a rapidity that rese the trees, I noticed for the first tiha, did not consider its indigenous empire extended to the North-West coast Of the other kinds, and which complete all the variety we observed on this part of the continent, were the mimosa, acacia, papyrus, and two sorts of Eucalyptus; there were also several plants of the order Leguured in Mr Gould's work on the Birds of Australia as Ichthyiaetus leucogaster)

THE SEABREEZE

We had a breeze throughout the entire day, from North-East till 1 o'clock, then West-North-West till near ht; this westerly or seabreeze, reached us within ten ularity we found to prevail the few days we spent on this part of the coast The tide (being near the spring) fell in the night 36 feet, leaving the greater part of the bay dry at loater Our observations for latitude placed Eagle Point in 16 degrees 10 1/4 minutes south

April 11

We left with the first streak of dawn, and pursued our course to the southward, passing inside a sle Point The eastern shore now took a South by West direction, forhts, flanked by hills of moderate elevation; our next station was an islet at the head of Collier Bay, bearing South-South-West 1/2 West 15 le Point: it was in the mouth of a shoal bay about three miles deep in a West-South-West direction, the shores of which were lined with e The width of Collier Bay, at its entrance 20 miles, was here only six

NARROW INLET

The western shore ran in a North-West by West direction, a straight rocky coast, over which rose abruptly a range of barren heights The tide strearadually weakened as we approached the head of the bay, where it scarcely exceeded half a knot, and the soundings decreased to seven fathoms, with a kind of muddy sand bottom; but the clearness of the water, and the equal duration of the flood and ebb streadiscovered in the South-East corner of the bay being nothing more than an inlet It bore fro man catches at a straw, so did we at this inlet, and were soon in the entrance, which we found to be half aout

After soh rocky island in the ood view of the inlet, which within the entrance widened out and was about twothe eastern extreme, which Mr Helpman was sent to examine; he found it extended two miles in an East-North-East direction, and like the other parts of it, to be lined with a scanty growth of h rocky land The shape of this inlet rese subject to a tidal change of level of 36 feet, it is easy to iine hat violence such a body of water h the narrow entrance to keep on a level with the slow-reat rise of tide in the head of Collier Bay,no escape for the vast body of water flowing into it The land over the depth of this inlet which I have before spoken of, as being barren rocky heights, bounded our view to the southward; it bore South-South-East three rees 25the farthest point we determined towards the centre of the continent The extreme position reached in that direction by Lieutenant Lushi+ngton of Lieutenant Grey's expedition, bears frorees East fifty miles

Thus terh we had not the good fortune to find it the outlet of so into the interior, still we succeeded in setting at rest the speculation, such a deep indentation of the coastline had hitherto afforded, and increased our geographical knowledge of this part of the continent 35 miles

RETURN OF THE BOATS

In the afternoon we coe the Fourth, fro to exa North by East four miles from the inlet, of slate formation, we reached a narrow point sixfrom the sun's amplitude We were surprised to find this point also corey slate The islands we exa's Sound, having steep precipitous sides to the North-West instead of to the South-East As it was by this tihtfall we did not proceed farther

April 12

Towards the ht the thered between 80 and 96 degrees

RAFT POINT

The large bay discovered on our way to the southward now becaht closed in the boats were secured in a small sandy cove, just within its southern point, where there were several native rafts, constructed precisely in the sa's Sound, from which circumstance we called the place Raft Point