Broad Sound.] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS, 
65 
At low water, the seamen went out upon the dry flat and found 1802. 
the best-bower cable parted, and the anchor so far buried in the Tuesd^H*. 
quicksand, that it could not be raised. At ten o’clock the flood tide 
came rolling in, and presently set the brig afloat; the anchor was 
then weighed with ease, by means of a hawser previously bent to it, 
and the vessel rode by the small bower, against a tide which ran at 
the strongest between four and five knots. 
The Lady Nelson again took the ground at six in the morning. Wednes, 15. 
On sounding over to the east shore, distant half a mile, I found a 
small channel leading upwards, with four or five feet more water in 
it than where the brig lay ; the western shore was two miles distant 
over a silty flat, which was dry at low water and level as a race ground. 
At eleven, the flood came in, six or eight inches perpendicular, 
with a roaring noise; and so soon as it had passed the brig, I set off 
with Mr. Brown and Mr. Lacy in the whale boat, to follow it up the 
small channel on the eastern shore; and having a fair wind we out- 
ran the tide, and were sometimes obliged to wait its rising before we 
could proceed. At the end of six miles the small channel led across 
to the western side ; and the rare opportunity of a landing place 
induced me to pitch our tent there for the night : two miles higher 
up, the whole breadth of the Sound was reduced to half a mile. 
The country here was a stiff, clayey flat, covered with grass, 
and seemed to have been overflowed at spring tides ; though the 
high water of this day did not reach it by five feet. Three or four 
miles to the southward there were some hills, whence I hoped to see 
the course of the stream up to its termination ; and having time 
before dark, we set off. The grass of the plain was interspersed 
with a species of sensitive plant, whose leaves curled up in, and about 
our footsteps in such a manner, that the way we had come was for 
some time distinguishable. From the nearest of the small hills, I 
set the bearings of Double and Pine Mounts, our tent, and the brig at 
anchor, by which this station was fixed as in the chart ; but in order 
VOL. 11. K 
