ARRIVE AT PORT ESSINGTON. 136 



Strait by the Prince of Wales Channel. The 

 Bramble was left to perform some work in Endea- 

 vour Strait* and elsewhere along- the Inner Passage, 

 and after its completion to make the best of her 

 way to Sydney down the eastern coast of Australia 

 ag'ainst the trade-wind, before successfully accom- 

 plished by only two other vessels besides herself. 

 Of course a considerable degree of interest has been 

 excited by this intended procedui'e, as the two 

 vessels start under pretty equal circumstances to 

 reach the same place by two very different routes, 

 of the merits of one of which comparatively little is 

 known. 



November Qth. — Since leaving- Booby Island, 

 the weather has been fine with lig-ht easterly winds, 

 the westerly monsoon in these seas not usually 

 setting- in until the month of December. We first 

 made the land in the neig'hbourhood of Cape 

 Croker, and soon afterwards saw the beacon on 

 Point Smith. Entering- Port Essing-ton we ran up 

 the harbom', and anchored off the settlement of 

 Victoria early in the afternoon. 



On landing- and walking- over the place after an 



* Since the survey of Endeavour Strait in 1844 by Lieutenant 

 Yule in tlie Bramble (then attached to the Fly under Captain 

 F. P. Blackwood), several sunken rocks have been discovered, 

 thereby lessening the value of the passage through the Strait, as 

 others, yet undetected, to be found only by " sweeping" for them, 

 may be presumed to exist. Captain Stanley was strongly of 

 opinion that the Prince of Wales' Channel was far preferable, 

 especially for large ships, to Endeavour Strait. 



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