306 COMPLETE THE SURVEY OF PORT PHILLIP. 



paring for our return to the North coast, the proper 

 season for passing through Torres Strait also 

 approaching, and the increasing importance of Port 

 Phillip, rendering it desirable to complete our sur- 

 vey of its entrance before our departure ; we con- 

 sequently proceeded thither. We found even sound- 

 ings of 53 fathoms extend twenty miles N. by E. 

 from Harbinger Reef, but from thence northwards, 

 the depths gradually decreased. Calms and light 

 winds rendered the passage across very tedious. 

 We spent one night at anchor in 31 fathoms near 

 the entrance, about six miles south from Point 

 Flinders, where the tide scarcely ran a knot an 

 hour ; the flood stream set N.E. With these ope- 

 rations closed our work in Bass Strait, for the 

 present. We had completed the western entrance 

 from Port Western on the north shore and Circular 

 Head on the south. The weather had prevented 

 our doing more, and obtaining as many sound- 

 ings as we could have wished. It had been 

 unusually boisterous and unsettled, much more so 

 than the winter generally is. From all I could learn 

 such a season had not been experienced in the 

 memory of the oldest inhabitants. 



March 1. — Bidding adieu to our hospitable friends, 

 we left Port PhiUip, and having spent a night at 

 Port Western, stood out from it next morning, and 

 passed over in 12 and 15 fathoms, the patch of 

 discoloured water discovered by Flinders, two miles 

 south of the remarkable round islet, that lies off 



