;XXX INTRODUCTION. [Prior Discoveries, 
Flindees, their mothers, in it, and have heard them all in tumult together, 
1/98 ' may form a good idea of the confused noise of the seals at Cone 
Point. The sailors killed as many of these harmless, and not un- 
amiable creatures, as they were able to skin during the time neces- 
sary for me to take the requisite angles ; and we then left the poor 
affrighted multitude to recover from the effect of our inauspicious 
visit. 
My 8th station was taken, in returning to the schooner, upon 
the south end of the eastern Passage Isle ; 9th, the south-west 
end of the western Passage Isle ; and 10th, the south-east point of 
Clarke's Island. The 11th and last station was at Look-out Head, the 
bearings from which included some parts of the southern land, be- 
tween the extremes of S. 20 0 20' E. and S. 59 0 35' W. At these dif- 
ferent stations, the needle of the theodolite was sometimes found to 
vary one or two degrees from itself, as it had done at Preservation 
Island ; an effect which I attribute to the attraction of the rocks T 
having since experienced the same, and even greater, differences in 
most places where the rocks, as here, are granitic. 
In the wider parts of Armstrong's Channel there are many shoals 
of sand on each side, but a passage of sufficient width and depth 
is swept out by the tides, for ships to go through in safety. The 
bottom is either rocky or sandy : rocky in the deep and narrow 
parts, where the tides run three or four miles in an hour ; and 
sandy in the bights and shoaler places. The sand of the beaches 
is mostly granitic, but it sometimes consists of black metallic par- 
ticles, such as are found in the stone of the islands. 
It was not until Feb. 25 that the remains of the Sydney-Cove's 
cargo were all on board, and that a favourable change in the wind 
permitted us to sail for Port Jackson. These four days of deten- 
tion enabled me to continue the survey along the south side of 
Preservation Island, and as far as the Bay of Rocks upon that of 
Cape Barren. A meridian altitude from the south horizon, observed 
under more favourable circumstances than two others before taken, 
