BANKS STRAIT. 443 



was also told that he might expect a hurricane be- 

 fore long. From this, and the experience of other 

 navigators, it appears that rotatory gales are pre- 

 valent in the Pacific as well as in the Indian 

 Ocean. 



Leaving Sydney, we resumed our work to the 

 southward ; and towards the end of October an- 

 chored under Swan Island, lying midway on 

 the south side of Banks Strait, which trends W. by 

 N., with a width of twelve miles, a length of 

 seventeen, and a depth of from 16 to 25 fathoms; 

 it is formed by the north-east point of Tasmania 

 and the islands lying to the south of Flinders. 

 Barren Island, one of the latter, has a remarkable 

 peak at its south-eastern end, and some high rounded 

 hills on the north-western ; it is twenty-two miles in 

 extent, lying in an east and west direction. It is 

 separated from Flinders by a channel, which I named 

 after Sir John Franklin, four miles wide, thickly 

 strewed with islands and shoals. The eastern en- 

 trance is almost blocked up by sand-banks, extend- 

 ing off five miles and a half from a large island, 

 (called by us after the Vansittart, but known to the 

 sealers by the name of Gun-carriage Island), and 

 leaving only a narrow, shifting passage of 2 and 4 

 fathoms between their northern side and Flinders 

 Island. The anchorages which lie in the western 



been falling for some time before. Besides this, there was ample 

 warning in the unusually gloomy lurid appearance of the sky ; 

 the weather also was misty, with showers of rain as the ship 

 approached the course of the storm. 



