Volume I Part 22 (2/2)
PORT PHILLIP
In a slimpse of some rich valleys; but from thence for a distance of 16 miles, the coast retains a barren sandy character to Port Phillip, which we reached on the afternoon of the 18th We scarcely found any ripplings in the entrance, an occurrence of extreined that a body of water required to fill a bay thirty h an entrance one reat violence; and e take into account the extre from 40 to 25 and even 9 fathoms) no surprise can be felt that such a strea wind, should raise a dangerous sea The force of it may be conjectured fro on one of the entrance points, I saw a schooner trying to get in with all sails set before a fresh breeze, and yet she was carried out by the current
Another observation is also recorded for the guidance of the stranger passing into the port When in thethe line of white sand beach beyond Shortlands Bluff, was just seen clear of the latter
The first appearance of Port Phillip is very striking, and the effect of the view is enhanced by the contrast with the turbulent waves without and in the entrance As soon as these have been passed, a broad expanse of placid water displays itself on every side; and one ht almost fancy oneself in a s a bluff in the North-East soon dispels this idea Besides this bluff (called by the natives Dandonong) Arthur's Seat, and Station Peak are the principal features that catch the eye of the stranger The latter, called Youang by the natives, is one of a s abruptly out of a low plain on the western shore of the bay; whilst Arthur's Seat towers over the eastern shore, and forradually to the coast at Cape Shanck
Anchoring close to the southern shore, about three ood earnest with our surveying operations--in the first place selecting a conspicuous spot for observation, from which all the meridians of our work in the western part of the Strait were to be measured For the sake of my nautical readers I may mention that the western extreme of the cliffy patches on the south shore of the bay,us to the neighbourhood of the entrance, we had no opportunity of visiting the town of Melbourne, situated near the northern side of the bay This capital of Australia Felix had for a long time been known to some squatters from Tasmania; but to Sir Thorateful for revealing to the world at large the fertility of the districts in its neighbourhood It is not a little singular that the attempt to form a settlement at this place in 1826 should have failed A fort was built and abandoned, and of the party of convicts who accompanied the expedition, two escaped and joined the natives, by who by soratiate himself with them, remained in their company until 1835, when he was discovered by the settlers fro the eleven years he had passed in the bush, without cootten his own language, and had degenerated into a perfect savage His intellect, if he ever possessedof any value could be gleaned fro the history anddwelt He received his pardon and went to Hobart, but such was the indolence he had contracted that nothing could be made of hiular long narrow tongue of land, running out froe of which Arthur's Seat is thein it, and containing shells of recent species, that it was once much beneath its present level; in fact, that it stops up as for only the present narrow entrance at the western extremity Over its surface are scattered hills froht, in the valleys bethich was found sorass, and at various places a thin growth of Banksia, Eucalypti, and Casuarina, all stunted and showing syhly used by the south wind Near the spot we had chosen for the centre of our observations was a well of inferior water, and we did not find any better in the neighbourhood The point in question therefore will never be very eligible as a settlee, and the finest snappers I have ever heard of are caught off this point, weighing so experi principally sharks; thirteen young ones were found in a single female of this species
SAIL FOR KING ISLAND
Bad weather prolonged our stay until the 26th of Nove the position of thethe banks, that extend across the entire bay, three es appeared to be those lying on the south and west shores, particularly the forht; but we did not conclude the exa of the 26th to survey the coast to the ard The first thirteenWest by South was of a low sandy character, what see behind it Two features on this line are worthy of notice--Point Flinders, rese an island from seaward, on account of the low land in its rear; and thein very fine weather On its northern bank, eightPassing this the nature of the country begins to change, and high grassy doith rare patches of woodland present theive place, as we approach Cape Otway, to a steep rocky coast, with densely wooded land rising abruptly over it
CAPE OTWAY
The above-mentioned Cape is the northern point of the western extremity of Bass Strait, and is swept by all the winds that blow into that end of the Funnel The pernicious effect of these is evident in the stunted appearance of the trees in its neighbourhood It is a bold projection in latitude 38 degrees 51 e of granite gradually rising from it in a North-East direction About half athus coasted the northern side of the Strait, we proceeded to cross over to Tas Island, extending in a north and south direction, thirty-five ht across the entrance of the Strait, about forty miles from either shore, and from its isolated position is well adapted for a penal settlement
The more northern channel of the two formed by this island is the safer, and the water deepens from 47 to 65 fathoms as you approach it from the continent Its outline is not re a round hill 600 feet high over the northern point called Cape Wickham We anchored in a bay on the North-West side, under New Year Island, which affords shelter for a few vessels froe between the two, but none between them and the southern point of the bay, which is open to the north-west On the suranite are strewed, and they exhibit a very remarkable white appearance from seahen the sun has passed his meridian
A SEALER'S FAMILY
A sealer had established himself on the north island with tives, natives of Tasreatcoats aroo skins, and seemed quite contented with their condition
Their offspring appeared sharp and intelligent In another part of my work I shall touch more fully on the history of these sealers, who style theuish their classes by the na to the position of the islands they inhabit
The sealers on New Year Island had a large whaleboat, which I was so but onethem He informed me, however, that his wives, the two native women, assisted hih weather they have to encounter in Bass Strait by a canvas half-deck, which, lacing in the centre, could be rolled up on the gunwale in fine weather
THE MUTTON BIRD
The principal occupation of these people during thisthe Sooty Petrel, called by the colonists the Mutton Bird, from a fancied resemblance to the taste of that meat It is at the present month that they resort to the island for the purpose of incubation They constitute the chief sustenance of the sealers, who cure them for use and sale: their feathers also form a considerable article of trade Many parts of the island were perfectly honeycoress of the pedestrian, and are in so in them The sealers told me that they had lost a cat which died within an hour after the bite of one of these reptiles We here found cabbages and water, and the people inforetables on the islands they frequented
Froer reefs, so-called from a convict shi+p of that nalad to find they were only two detached rocks lying three miles and a half from the shore, instead of, as reported, one continued reef lying six or seven miles from the land They bore north six miles from our position
CAPTAIN SMITH
The sealers informed us that a house which we descried in the bay, was occupied by a gentlely paid hi, and found that he was a Captain Sly fled as far as possible from the society of civilisedIsland with his faiven the naed to Franklin Road, fro worthy of the title of a Port He was led to choose his position froe from all winds, and near the best soil he had found after traversing the whole of the island According to his account it was totally unfit for rearing sheep on a large scale; the bushes and grass being so full of burrs that the as completely spoiled The soil was everywhere very inferior, and a few patches only of clean land was to be found, the principal part being overrun with dense scrub and impervious thickets There were few elevations on the island, and those not of any greatscarcely seven hundred feet
The forranite: water abounds
WEST SIDE OF KING ISLAND
The house in which this modern Robinson Crusoe dhat is called a Slab Hut, forarden in which grew soetables; but he coht froaroos on the island, and plenty of wildfowl on sooons; so that supplies are abundant: but the few sheep he possessed were rendered of little value fro the condition of this gentlehter and three or four fine boys They had retained a few of the tastes and habits of civilized life, and I observed a good library with a flute and reat pleasure that I afterwards learned that Captain Shtened He is now, I believe, a comfortable settler on the eastern side of Tasmania
On the 29th we passed down the western shore of King Island, finding the coast to be low, treacherous and rocky We discovered so rocks a mile and half from shore, and about eleven miles south from New Year Island The most remarkable circumstance we noticed in this part of our cruise, was the leafless appearance of the trees on the higher parts of the island It seeh a hurricane had stripped thely of a wintry day in the north
About eight miles froood anchorage in east winds It was afterwards called Fitz dark line of black cliffs stretches southward until within about three round sinks suddenly, whence vessels are apt to be misled and to fancy that the island ends there, whilst in reality it stretches out into a low dangerous rocky point, named after the writer, for about threethis we anchored on the eastern side of it in Seal Bay--a wild anchorage, the swell constantly rolling in with tooa series of tidal observations This bay, in the mouth of which lies a small cluster of rocks, is separated from the one on the opposite side, by a strip of low sandy land, which, as I have said,fro that the sea was clear south of the black cliffs that skirt the shore down from Fitzmaurice Bay The Wallaby are numerous on this part of the island Mr Bynoe shot one (Hal one which he kept on board and tareat pet with us all
I noticed here a trappean dyke, but the general for Island exactly corresponded with that about Captain Sranite The south-eastern shore is rather steep, and the ground which rises abruptly over it is al Seal Bay--froers at this extre East by South 1/4 South 12 miles--we coasted round the eastern shore and anchored off a sandy bay about the centre of the island The only re one mile from the shore and five froested by its for Rock Off the north point of the bay in which we anchored lies a white rock or islet called Sea Elephant Rock, with a reef a mile off its north point
Opposite this is a soons or swamps behind the bay Northward the character of the coast, as far as we could see, changes considerably, being loith a continued line of sandy shore
A breeze fro the survey of the northern side of the island; but one ie may be obtained in inds within a moderate distance of this part of the shore in less than fifteen fathoroup of islands fronting the north-western point of Tas the southern side of theto the South-West at the rate of three knots an hour brought us within fiveat that distance from their eastern side we had 28 and 30 fatho was 37 fathoms towards the south side of the Strait