496 THE DISCOVERY OF AUSTRALIA 



of some scores of them, and he says that it " exactly 

 resembled the creaking of a rusty ale-house sign on a windy 

 day." Not more than two-thirds of the flock could fly ; 

 a fact which no doubt helped to form the opinion that 

 Port Dalrymple was " an excellent place for refreshment." 

 In fact, all things suggested a settlement ; and six years 

 later a settlement was formed forty miles up the river, 



Launceston, which was named the Tamar, at a beautiful place which 



l8 4- was named Launceston. 1 



Bass's Strait. Westward from Port Dalrymple, the coast was found 

 to trend towards the North-West, and the water appeared 

 to be discoloured ; facts which seemed to indicate that 

 " we were approaching the head of a bay rather than 

 the issue of a strait." But on the 7th of December, they 

 observed a tide from the West which they considered 

 " a strong proof not only of the real existence of a passage 

 between this land and New South Wales, but also that 

 the entrance into the Southern Indian Sea could not be 

 far distant." On the Qth they could see no main land 

 to the West, and " a long swell was perceived to come 

 from the South-West." The long swell " was likely to 

 prove troublesome and perhaps dangerous"; but, writes 

 Flinders, " Mr. Bass and myself hailed it with joy and 

 mutual congratulation, as announcing the completion 

 of our long-wished-for discovery of a passage into the 

 Southern Indian Ocean." 



The West Van Diemen's Land, then, was an island, and Flinders 



sailed along its Western coast, observing mountains 

 so writes the man from flat and fertile Lincolnshire 

 which seemed " amongst the most stupendous works 

 of nature I ever beheld, and . . . the most dismal and 

 barren that can be imagined. The eye ranges over these 

 peaks and variously formed lumps of adamantine rock 

 with astonishment and horror." On the nth of December 

 he identified Tasman's landfall, and named Mount Heems- 

 kirk and Mount Zeehan in memory of the Dutch ships. 

 Then he sailed along the shores which Tasman had charted 

 one hundred and fifty years before, recognizing the main 

 1 Walker's Early Tasmania, p. no. 



