74 SWAN ISLAND. 



The party in charg-e of the lighthouse have 

 numbera of goats^ pigs^ and sheep; and also raise a 

 few potatoes and other vegetables ; still their life is 

 a hard one — more so comparatively, than that of 

 the keepers of the Eddystone or Bell Rock lights 

 at home, as they communicate with Van Diemen's 

 Land only twice a year, and are often in want of 

 fuel, which they have to send for to a neighbouring 

 island. 



March 4:th. — Aided by the remains of a strong 

 westerly wind, with which we at one time logged 

 ten and a half knots— a great feat for the old 

 Rattlesnake, jury -rigged as she was for " surveying 

 service," we passed through part of Banks' Strait, 

 and anchored off Swan Island at 9 a.m. The 

 rock is a fine grained basalt, exposed only on the 

 shore, the remainder of the island being a series of 

 sand-hills covered with low shrubs and luxuriant 

 grass growing in tufts. Having left Captain 

 Stanley's party on their way to the lighthouse, I 

 found on the western side of the island a long 

 sandy beach strewed with marine rejectamenta, 

 among which were many new species of zoophytes ; 

 the number and variety of sponges was very great, 

 but nearly all had suffered so much from exposure 

 to the sun and weather, as to be useless as speci- 

 mens. Returning to the ship before noon, we 

 immediately got under weigh for Sydney. 



March 9th. — Yesterday morning we picked up a 

 strong S.S.E. wind, which brought us off Botany 



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