216 A VOYAGE TO [South Coast. 
1802. indeed very low and marshy, with mud banks lying along it ; and 
Friday 30. we na ^ difficulty in finding a dry place to pitch the tent, and still 
more to procure wood wherewith to cook the ducks I had shot upon 
the banks. 
May. At day dawn I set off with three of the boat's crew, for the 
Saturday 1. 
highest part of the back hills called Station Peak. Our way was 
over a low plain, where the water appeared frequently to lodge ; it 
was covered with small-bladed grass, but almost destitute of wood, 
and the soil was clayey and shallow. One or two miles before 
arriving at the feet of the hills, we entered a wood where an emu 
and a kanguroo were seen at a distance ; and the top of the peak 
was reached at ten o'clock. My position was then si' of latitude 
from Point Nepean, in the direction of N. 28 0 30' W., and I saw the 
water of the port as far as N. 75° E., at the distance of seven or eight 
leagues; so that the whole extent of the port, north and south, 
is at least thirty miles. The extremity of the western arm bore 
S- 1 5°45' W., which makes the extent, east and west, to be thirty-six 
miles ; but there was no communication with the sea on that side, nor 
did the western arm appear to be navigable beyond seven miles 
above where I had crossed it. Towards the interior there was a 
mountain bearing N. n°E., eleven leagues distant; and so far the 
country was low, grassy, and very slightly covered with wood, pre- 
senting great facility to a traveller desirous of penetrating inland. 
I left the ship's name on a scroll of paper, deposited in a small 
pile of stones upon the top of the peak ; and at three in the after- 
noon reached the tent, much fatigued, having walked more than 
twenty miles without finding a drop of water. Mr. Lacy, the mid- 
shipman of the boat, had observed the latitude at the tent from an 
artificial horizon to be 38 2' 2 2" i and Station Peak bore from thence 
N. 47 0 W. 
In the evening we rowed back to Indented Head, and landed 
there soon after dark. Fires had been seen moving along the shore, 
but the people seemed to have fled ; though we found two newly 
