flindp:rs well. 271 



On the opposite side of the trunk the Beagle's name 

 and the date of our visit were cut. 



It was thus our good fortune to find at last some 

 traces of the Investigator's voyage, which at once 

 invested the place with all the charms of association, 

 and o-ave it an interest in our eves that words can 

 ill express. All the adventures and sufferings of 

 the intrepid Flinders vividly recurred to our memory ; 

 his discoveries on the shores of this great continent, 

 his imprisonment on his way home, and cruel treat- 

 ment by the French Governor of Mauritius, called 

 forth renewed sympathies. I forthwith determined 

 accordingly that the first river we discovered in the 

 Gulf should be named the Flinders, as the tribute to 

 his memory which it was best becoming in his humble 

 follower to bestow, and that which would most suc- 

 cessfully serve the purpose of recording his services 

 on this side of the continent. Monuments may 

 crumble, but a name endures as long as the world. 



Beinsf desirous of ascertaining^ if now, in the 

 dry season, water could be obtained in other parts 

 of the island, I ordered a well to be dug on the 

 extreme of Point Inscription, a more convenient spot 

 for watering a ship, and at a depth of f^5 feet met 

 excellent water, pouring through a rock of concreted 

 sand, pebbles, and shells. 



Our success may be attributed, as Flinders says, 

 to the clayey consistence of the stratum immediately 

 under the sand, and to the gravelly rock upon which 

 that stratum rests ; the one preventing the evapo- 



