X799-] 



OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 



459 



age was the afcertaining of the exiftence of a ftrait feparating Van 

 Diemen's Land from the continent of New Holland, it may not be 

 improper to enter with fome degree of minutenefs into the particulars 

 of it; and the writer of thefe pages feels much gratification in 'be- 

 ing enabled to do this, from the accurate and pleafmg journal of Mr. 

 Bafs, with the perufal and ufe of which he was favoured. 



The Norfolk, as has been already ftated, failed upon this voyage 

 of difcovery about the 7th of October 1798, with Lieutenant Flinders 

 and Mr. Bafs, and on the 1 ith anchored in Twofold Bay. Mr. Bafs, 

 on examination, found Twofold Bay fituated at the fouthern end of a 

 fhort chain of hummocky hills, one part of which is much more con- 

 fpicuous than the reft, and lies immediately behind the bay. The 

 land on the weft fide, being a part of this chain of hills, is high and 

 rocky. The more is divided into fteep cliff heads, with fmall inter- 

 mediate beaches ; the one formed by the mo ft prominent of the ridges, 

 the other -by the fand thrown up at the foot of their vallies. Behind 

 the beaches are ponds of brackifh water. 



The abruptnefs and fudden rife of the hills, for the mod part, per- 

 mit the vegetable earth to be wafhed down into the vallies, as faft as 

 it is formed. Some of the more gradual Hopes retain a fufficiency 

 of it to produce a thick coat of tolerably fucculent grafs ; but the foil 

 partakes too much of the ftoney quality of the higher parts to be 

 capable of cultivation. The dark luxuriant foliage of the vallies points 

 out the advantages which they had received from the impoverifbed 

 hills. Their foil is rich and deep, but their extent is narrow and 

 limited. Both hill and valley produce large timber, and bruin-wood 

 of various heights. 



In the S. W. corner of the bay, is a lagoon, or fmall inlet, that 

 communicates with the fea, through the beach, at the back of which 

 it lies. The chain of hills here runs back to fome little diftance from 

 the water, and leaves a few fquare miles of rather good ground, 

 through which the inlet was found to take its courfe in a winding 

 direction to the S. W. for fix or eight miles, where it ends in fmall 



3 n 2 fwamps 



