RETURN TO PORT PHILLIP. 281 



wives and families, including their dogs, on the 

 islands they inhabit. 



On the morning of the 22nd, we were again out 

 of the Tamar, and making the best of our way to 

 Port Phillip for a meridian distance. There was 

 little tide noticed in the middle of the Strait ; the 

 greatest depth we found was 47 fathoms, 68 miles 

 N.W. from the Tamar, where the nature of the 

 bottom was a grey muddy sand or marl. 



At noon on the 23rd, we entered Port Phillip, 

 and ran up through the West Channel in three 

 and three and a half fathoms. 



Point Lonsdale, the west entrance point, being 

 kept open of Shortland bluff — a cliffy projection 

 about two miles within it — leads into the entrance ; 

 and a clump of trees on the northern slope of In- 

 dented Head, was just over a solitary patch of low 

 red cliffs, as we cleared the northern mouth of the 

 channel. From thence to Hobson's Bay, where we 

 anchored at 3, p. m., the course is N. by W. 22 

 miles across a splendid sheet of water, of which the 

 depth is 11 and 13 fathoms. 



William Town, the sea-port town of Australia 

 Felix, named after his Majesty King William IV., 

 stands on a very low piece of land forming the 

 southern shore of Hobson's Bay, called Point Gelli- 

 brand, after a gentleman from Hobarton, one of the 

 first who brought stock to Port Phillip. He was 

 lost in the bush in a very mysterious manner in 

 1834. No trace of him or his horse was found till 



