106 THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 



NOTES ON THE ORIGIN OF THE NAMES OF SOME 

 GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES AT WILSON'S PROM- 

 ONTORY, CORNER INLET, AND NEIGHBOUR- 

 HOOD. 



By a. E. Phillips. 



(Communicated by T. S. Hall, M.A.) 



{Read before the Field Naturalists'' Cluh of Victoria, VMli Aug., 1906.) 



[The visit of the Field Naturalists' Club party to Wilson's Prom- 

 ontory last summer {Vict. Nat., xxii,, p. 191) aroused some 

 interest in the origin of the names of prominent features, both on 

 the mainland and the adjacent islands (see map, Vict. Nat., xxii., 

 p. 44, July, 1905), and, acting on a suggestion, Mr. Phillips 

 undertook the perusal of some of the early publications in which 

 references might probably be found, the result being the follow- 

 ing extracts, which should be found of value as records of the 

 first use of many of the names. — Ed. Vict. Nat.'\ 



Wilson's Promontory. — " At 3.10 a.m. (Tuesday, 2nd 

 January, 1798), sufficient day had broken in upon the sky for us 

 to see the land ; it was still low and level sand, and seemed to 

 trend in nearly the direction of our course. At 7 we were sur- 

 prised by the sight of high humraocky land right ahead, but at a 

 considerable distance. We steered for it, but that did not oblige 

 us to quit the beach, for it also appeared to be making the same 

 way in nearly as straight a course as it was able. At noon our 

 latitude was 38° 41' ; the high land was now abreast of us ; its 

 northernmost end bore W. by N. 2 or 3 miles. There were 

 several small islands lying in various directions to the southward. 

 Vast flights of petrels and other birds flying about us. Our 

 course and distance since 3.10 had been about S.W. by S., from 

 35 to 40 miles or more, the beach keeping by the side of us until 

 within a few miles of the high land, where it bighted back in two 

 or three places that had the appearance of inlets.- I now found 

 we had filled up the before unexplored space between what is 

 called Point Hicks, a point we could not at all distinguish 

 from the rest of the beach, and the land seen by Furneaux in 

 latitude 39°, for this high hummocky land could be no other 

 than the land seen by him." — (Bass's Voyage in the Whale- 

 boat.) Historical Records of New South Wales. Vol. iii., 

 p. 321. 



"A more southerly course was then taken, and the boat 

 reached what the explorer supposed was Furneaux's Land, but 

 which he afterwards became convinced was Wilson's Promon- 

 tory, so named by Governor Hunter, on the joint recommenda- 

 tion of Flinders and Bass, after Thomas Wilson, Esq., of London, 

 a friend of the former." — Marly History of the Colony of Victoria, 



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