clii INTRODUCTION. [Prior Discoveries. 
Flinders for the night; the furthest visible extreme, a remarkable stony 
an i798. SS head, bearing S. 70 0 W. about eight miles. 
The wind blew a moderate breeze all night, at north-east. At 
five in the morning, Nov. 3, the Ninth Island was distant two miles, 
and bore E. 2° N., in a line with Point Waterhouse. The top of the 
island appeared green and level ; but I did not see any seals upon 
the rocks. Resuming our former course along shore, we passed 
close to Stony Head at ten o'clock, when two sets of distances of 
the sun east of the moon, gave its corrected longitude 147 0 10' east. 
The wind having then veered more to the north, we hauled further 
off, and passed a rocky islet (the tenth), upon which a few over- 
grown hair seals were sunning themselves. At noon, our situation 
was as follows. 
o / 
Latitude observed, 40 55^ S, 
Tenth I., distant four miles, - S. 87 E. 
Stony Head, dist. six or seven miles, S. 62 E. 
A low head, distant ten miles, - S. 35 W. 
Western extreme of the land, - S. 53 W. 
Stony Head is the extremity of a ridge of hills which branches 
out from the inland mountains, and stretches across the low, sandy 
land in front, to the sea. On each side of the ridge there were 
several smokes, which induced me to suppose the flat lands might 
contain lakes of fresh water. The low head, bearing S. 35 0 W. 
seemed to be the termination of another branch from the inland 
mountains ; round it there was some appearance of an opening, and 
at two o'clock, this excited so much hope that I ventured to bear away 
before the wind. We advanced rapidly with the flood, and at four, 
had passed Low Head and were steering S. E. by S., up an inlet of 
more than a mile wide. Some shoals, not quite covered, we left on the 
starbord hand ; keeping a straight course for the entrance of a basin 
or bay, at which the inlet seemed to terminate. This course took 
us over some strong ripplings of tide, on none of which, however, 
there was less than 5 fathoms ; and so soon as they were passed, 
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