216 llETURW TO SWAN RIVER. 



The glimpse we got of the string of islands lying 

 between Barrow's Island and the North-west Cape, 

 was quite unexpected, as the next land we had in- 

 tended seeing was Swan River. After rounding the 

 North-west Cape, we had the usual southerly winds, 

 but a strong breeze from the north-west overtook 

 us in lat. 30' 40' S. and long. 112° 25' E., and 

 shortened the passage, bringing us on the 27th to an 

 anchorage under the east end of Rottenest Island, 

 where we found a current sweeping round to the 

 southward, at the rate of nearly a knot an hour. 

 There had not been any previously felt ; but in lat. 

 30" S. and long. 110° E., two days before the north- 

 wester, it set two knots to the northward ; another 

 instance of how entirely the currents are governed 

 by the winds off this coast. 



Our Swan River native had not obtained so much 

 information of his wild countrymen to the north- 

 ward as Miago. Still he had made the most of 

 what he saw ; and his visit to Timor crowned all. 

 The facility and rapidity with which he could make 

 a song about any one whom he might choose as the 



when in about 200 fathoms between the latitudes of 1 9° 50' S. and 

 20° 10' S. The bank of soundings extends further off the North- 

 west coast, as eighty-five miles north of Depuch Island we had 

 only 75 fathoms, fine white sand. In a south direction from that 

 position the water shoaled rapidly to 40 fathoms in fifteen miles ; 

 but very gradually afterwards to 15 fathoms in fifty miles. This 

 slope of the bank was determined by several boards in working 

 to the westward. 



