Flinders
and Bass.
1798.
the north head of an opening, but of what kind, our distance was too great to determine.[1]
During the night and next day, Dec. 7, the wind was variable, with alternate calms. The latitude at noon was 40° 28′, and the sugarloaf hill bore W. by S. ten miles. On the 8th a breeze sprung up from the south-westward, and threatened a gale from that boisterous quarter. We were in 40° 23′ at noon, and trying to work up to the land of the three hummocks, to prevent losing ground; and at six in the evening, got to an anchor in a quarter less 4 fathoms, in a small sandy bight under the northern hummock, being sheltered from N. 2° E., round by the west to S. 30° E. Circular Head was still visible, bearing S. 35° E.; and the difference of longitude made from Port Dalrymple was calculated at 1¾°, subject to future revision.
Mr. Bass and myself landed immediately to examine the country and the coast, and to see what food could be procured; for the long detention by foul winds had obliged me to make a reduction in the provisions, lest the object of our voyage and return to Port Jackson should not be accomplished in the twelve weeks for which we were victualled. At dusk, we returned on board, having had little success as to any of the objects proposed; but with the knowledge of a fact, from which an interesting deduction was drawn: the tide had been running from the eastward all the afternoon, and contrary to expectation, we found it to be near low water by the shore; the flood, therefore, came from the west, and not from the eastward, as at Furneaux's Isles. This we considered to be a strong proof, not only of the real existence of a passage betwixt this land and New South Wales, but also that the entrance into the Southern Indian Ocean could not be far distant.
- ↑ In 1804, Mr. Charles Robbins, acting lieutenant of His Majesty's ship Buffalo, was sent from Port Jackson to examine this great bight; and from his sketch it is, that the unshaded coast and soundings written at right angles are laid down in the chart.
