THK BLACK PYRAMID. ^71 



we had seen so much of on the N.W. coast, but on 

 closer inspection I found they were raised beaches; 

 the prevailing mass of the island was a (granitoid 

 rock. 



From stations on Hunter Island we were enabled 

 to determine the positions of the numerous dangers 

 fronting its west or seaward side, and also that of 

 a dark mass of rock, '250 feet high, appropriately 

 named the Black Pyramid, lying 16 miles W. by N. 

 from the centre of the island, and in lat. 40° 28' 

 S. which places it nearly five miles south of its 

 position in the old charts. It is quite a finger-post 

 to this entrance of the Strait, and all ships should 

 pass close to it. When I looked at these islands 

 and rocks I could not help thinking of poor 

 Captain Flinders and his enterprizing companion 

 Mr. Bass, the discoverers of the north-western part 

 of Tasmania. What a thrill of excitement must 

 have shot through their frames when on rounding 

 Hunter Island, in the little Norfolk cutter, they 

 first felt the lonfj swell of the ocean and became 

 convinced of the insular character of Tasmania! 

 This discovery must have amply repaid them for 

 all their toils and privations. Nothing indeed is 

 so calculated to fill the heart of the navigator with 

 pride, as the consciousness that he has widened 

 the sphere of geographical science, and added new 

 seas and new lands to the known world. 



The south end of Hunter Island is about three 

 miles from a point of the mainland, called Wool- 



