East Coast, $ V. D\s Land.} INTRODUCTION. 
clxxxv 
towards its north end ; its length is one mile, and mean breadth Flinders 
about half that quantity ; the soil is fertile, and nourishes a luxuriant ^ml^' 
vegetation of grass and wood ; and though the natives visit it occa- 
sionally, none of their traces were recent. On rejoining the sloop, I 
found she had passed between the island and two flat rocks near the 
main, with from 5 to 9 fathoms water ; in which depths the gigantic 
sea-weed grows up to the surface. At eight o'clock we anchored 
in 9 fathoms, off Cape Direction, at the entrance of the river. 
Dec. 22, a base was measured and bearings taken for a survey of 
the entrance, which proved to be near three miles wide. On the 
23rd, the wind being fair, we ran upwards between shores which 
were sometimes steep, but generally of a gradual ascent, and well 
clothed with grass and wood. At nine miles from the entrance lies 
Sullivan Cove, on the west side, where a settlement has since been esta- 
blished by colonel Collins ;* and here the width of the river is sud- 
denly contracted, from one mile and a half to less than three-quarters 
of a mile, but the depth is not diminished. Four miles higher up 
we found Risdon Cove, and anchored there in 4 fathoms, with the 
intention of filling our empty water casks at the Risdon River of Mr. 
Hayes ; but finding it to be a little creek which even our boat could 
not enter, I determined to seek a more convenient watering place 
higher up the Derwent. 
Dec. 24, the wind being adverse to proceeding upward, an exten- 
sive set of angles was taken from the top of Mount Direction ; and 
next day, I carried the survey up the river, whilst Mr. Bass ascended 
the great Mount Table, on the western side. At the northern foot of 
this mount lie King George's Plains, a name given by Mr. Hayes to 
about three hundred acres of pasture land ; and in the front of 
the plains is his Prince of Wales' Bay, a small shallow cove. Such 
names as these led us, at first, into some errors with respect to the 
* The first, settlement was made in Risdon Cove, in 1803, by captain John Bowen 
of the navy, who was sent from Port Jackson for that purpose, by his Excellency governor 
King ; but on the arrival of colonel Collins in 1804, it was removed to Sullivan Cove,. 
vol. r. B b 
