346 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 



" Point Hicks " is identical with the pi-esent Cape Everard, and 

 the writer, in the papers above referred to, has set out his reasons 

 for disagreeing vfith. that conclusion. An attempt was made by 

 Mr. Ernest Scott, in a paper read by him before the Historical 

 Society of Victoria, on 20th May, 1912, to controvert the writer's 

 views on the subject. This paper has not yet been published, 

 and, when it is, the writer proposes replying to it, but does not 

 desire to bring the controversy before this Association. 



When dealing formerly with Cook's work on our coast, the 

 writer was in doubt as to whether, in certain cases, he had used 

 true or magnetic bearings, but has since ascertained that both he 

 and Flinders always used true bearings, in this respect differing 

 from most other navigators. ' 



In his voyage north, Cook fixed the positions of Ram (or 

 Rame) Head and Cape Howe. In the papers referred to, the 

 writer has given his reasons for considering that the Ram Head 

 of Cook is not the head now known by that name, but the one 

 now called Little Rame Head. 



Captain Furneaux, when in command of the Adventure (the 

 second vessel in connexion with Captain Cook's second expedi- 

 tion), reported the existence of high land in latitude 39 degrees 

 south, which at one time was thouglit to be Wilson's Promontory, 

 but from Flinders' examination it is evident that this is not so, 

 and that this " land " of Furneaux has no existence. 



The next explorer^ on the Victorian coast-line was the cele- 

 brated Mr. Bass, avIio, during his whaleboat voyage, traced the 

 coast from Cook's most western point to Western Port, and made 

 a fairly accurate survey of that port. The coast-line, as surveyed 

 by him, is shown in the chart of Van Diemen's Land and part 

 of the southern coast of Australia, by Flinders, published by 

 Arrowsmith, on 10th June, 1800, a copy of which is in the 

 Petherick collection, and another in the Sydney Public Library. 

 As Flinders has pointed out, Bass latitudes are all about 10 minutes 

 in error, apparently through his sextant being out of order, and 

 his diffei-ences of longitudes, which were deduced from dead reckon- 

 ing, are also too small. He has, however, given us a vi/onderfully 



' It is probable that the long boat of the Sydney Cove (which ship was beached on Preservation 

 Island, Furneaux Group, on 8th February, 1797) was on the northern end of the Ninety Mile 

 Beach when she was wrecked, but from the particulars in Historical Records of New Sout i Wales, 

 Vol. 3, page 760 and onwards, it is difficult to fix the exact date of the wreck or its location. From 

 one portion of the record it would appear that the boat was wrecked on 2nd March, and from 

 another, on 11th or 12th March. This boat's crew must have been the first white men to land 

 on Victorian -i"!!; they consisted of Hugh Thompson, chief mate; W. Clark, assistant super- 

 cargo • and fifteen seamen of the Sydney Cove. Of these, Clark and two seamen only reached 

 Port Jackson, the rest having perished on the way. 



