268 FOWLBR ISLAND. 



were found. A few small fish, besides sharks, were 

 caught alongside the ship. 



I was surprised to find the tides an hour later 

 than at Van Diemen's Inlet; their velocity, likewise, 

 was increased to two knots ; the flood stream came 

 from the north-east at the anchorage. 



July 7. — At daylight, we left for Sweers Island ; 

 but owing to light winds, chiefly easterly, did not 

 reach Investigator Road, between Sweers and 

 Bentinck Islands, before the afternoon of the 8th. 

 The soundings on the way were generally 9 fathoms, 

 fine sandy mud. A small islet, lying ofi^ the S. E. 

 side of Bentinck Island, and forming the immediate 

 eastern side of the Road, I named after the first 

 lieutenant of the Investigator, now Captain 

 Fowler. 



Under Mount Inspection, a hill 105 feet high, and 

 the most remarkable feature hereabouts, on the S.E. 

 extreme of Sweers Island, a party of twelve natives 

 was observed as we passed. They gazed silently at 

 us, making no demonstration of joy, fear, anger, 

 or surprise. It is possible they may have been 

 stupified by the appearance of that wonderful crea- 

 tion of man's ingenuity — a ship ; in their eyes it 

 must have seemed a being endowed with life "walk- 

 ing the waters,'* for purposes to them incompre- 

 hensible, on a mission to the discovery of which they 

 could not even apply the limited faculties they pos- 

 sessed. Fortunately or unfortunately for them — 

 accorditJir as we determine on the value of civiliza- 



