East Coast, 8f V. D'.s Land.'] INTRODUCTION. 
cxvii 
moon passed over the meridian. The flood, after sweeping south- Bass. 
westward along the great eastern beach, strikes off for the Seal 1?98 ' 
Islands and the promontory, and then runs westward, past it, at the 
rate of two or three miles an hour : the ebb tide sets to the eastward. 
" Whenever it shall be decided," says Mr. Bass in his journal, 
" that the opening between this and Van Diemen's Land is a strait, 
" this rapidity of tide, and the long south-west swell that seems to 
" he continually rolling in upon the coast to the westward, will then 
" be accounted for." 
Feb. 2, Mr. Bass sailed to Corner Inlet; and next day fell in 
with the five convicts, whom he put across to the long beach,* 
but was himself unable to proceed until the 9th, in consequence of 
foul winds. Corner Inlet is little else than a large flat, the greater 
part of it being dry at low water. There is a long shoal on the 
outside of the entrance, which is to be avoided by keeping close to 
the shore of the promontory ; but when the tide is out the depth, ex- 
cept in holes, no where exceeds 2| fathoms. A vessel drawing twelve 
or thirteen feet may lie safely under the high land, from which there 
are some large runs of most excellent water. The tide rises a foot 
less here than in Sealers Cove, and flows an hour later ; arising, 
probably, from the flood leaving it in an eddy, by setting past, and 
not into the inlet. 
Feb. 9, Corner Inlet was quitted with a strong south-west wind, 
and Mr. Bass steered E. by N. along the shore. At the distance of 
five miles, he passed the mouth of a shallow opening in the low 
sandy beach, from which a half-moon shoal stretches three miles to 
the south-eastward. Four or five miles further, a lesser opening of 
the same kind was passed ; and by noon, when the latitude was 
38° 34' (probably 38 0 46'), he had arrived at the point of the long 
beach, which in going out, had been quitted to steer for the promon- 
tory. His general course from thence was N. E. by E. along the shore, 
until nine o'clock, when judging the coast must begin to trend more 
Nothing more had been heard of these five men, so late as 1803. 
