132 MUD ISLANDS, PORT PHILLIP BAY 



through binoculars — the rocks at the guano deposit being prob- 

 ably visible to him. One approaching the islands sees, from a 

 long way off, numerous swans and pelicans on the beaches. 

 Other extracts from the log are : 



Wednesday, February 27 ... In the afternoon the boat went to Swan Isles 

 and caught three live swans of a large size .... Saturday, February 17 ... . 

 Sent Mr. Bowen and Mr. Brabyn in the gig to get the latitude of the north 

 end of Swan Isles and at noon I got the latitude of a point about 7 miles North 

 and South of them from which a base line was got for the survey of the 

 harbour. 



The course Murray took when he charted the south-east portion 

 of Port Phillip is shown on his chart made in 1802. It passes 

 Swan Isles a short distance from the group which he shows as 

 consisting of three long and narrow islands, the largest one to the 

 north-west. Obviously Murray's survey party did not actually 

 survey the group. 



Charles Grimes, Acting Surveyor General of New South "Wales, 

 when he surveyed Port Phillip in January 1803, did not land on the 

 group; he appears to have copied his outlines of them from 

 Murray's chart. 



The Eev. Robert Knopwood, who kept a diary during Collins 's 

 settlement at Sullivan's Bay near Sorrento, referred to the group 

 as Signet Island. His entry for Tuesday, October 11, 1803, is as 

 follows : 



The same party Lieut. Nicholas Pateshall, Purser Edward White and self 

 went on the shore of the island in the middle of the Bay, now called Signet 

 Island, where we see a great number of black swans. I was the first that killed 

 one on the island. We kill 3, and caught many alive, and caught many 

 pelicans, and some sea birds. 



The landing was made two days after the expedition arrived 

 at Sullivan's Bay. 



Lieut. J. R. Tuckey of Collins 's Expedition who surveyed Port 

 Phillip in H.M.S. Calcutta in 1804, sketched in four islands; he 

 does not appear to have landed. 



The first actual survey was made in 1836 by Lieut. T. M. 

 Symonds and Lieut. H. R. Henry of H.M.S. Rattlesnake which 

 afterwards figured prominently in the survey of northern Aus- 

 tralian waters, with John Macgillivray and T. H. Huxley as 

 naturalists. Symonds and Henry were the first to refer to the 

 group as Mud Islands, and the channels to the east and west res- 

 pectively as Pinnace Channel and Symonds' Channel. In 1842 

 Commander I. C. Wickham and Captain Stokes in H.M.S. 

 Beagle, the 10-ton brig so closely associated with the wanderings 

 of Charles Darwin, extended Symonds and Henry's survey, and 

 in 1856 it was further extended by C. J. Polkinghorne. On this 



