gave rise in my mind to very curious conjectures;
he told me that where he used formerly to anchor the vessel he commanded
in the head of Sydney cove, there was now scarcely sufficient water to
float even a boat. As the deposits of the small stream that flows into it
could not have produced this change, I was led to examine the shore of
the harbour, when I found what seemed to me to be the marks of the sea
higher than its present level; this, coupled with the decrease in the
soundings we found in Darling Harbour, leads to the legitimate inference
that this part of the continent is rising; and my reader will recollect
that it is a prevalent theory that the whole of the vast plains of
Australasia have but recently emerged from the sea.

CHAPTER 1.9. BASS STRAIT.

Leave Sydney.
Enter Bass Strait.
Island at Eastern entrance.
Wilson's Promontory.
Cape Shanck.
Enter Port Phillip.
Tide-race.
Commence Surveying Operations.
First Settlement.
Escaped Convict.
His residence with the Natives.
Sail for King Island.
Examine Coast to Cape Otway.
King Island.
Meet Sealers on New Year Islands.
Franklin Road.
Solitary Residence of Captain Smith.
Soil.
Advantageous position for a Penal Settlement.
Leafless appearance of Trees.
Examine West Coast.
Fitzmaurice Bay.
Stokes' Point.
Seal Bay.
Geological Formation.
Examine Coast to Sea Elephant Rock.
Brig Rock.
Cross the Strait to Hunter Island.
Strong Tide near Reid's Rocks.
Three Hummock Island.
Rats.
The Black Pyramid.
Point Woolnorth.
Raised Beach.
Coast to Circular Head.
Headquarters of the Agricultural Company.
Capture of a Native.
Mouth of the Tamar River.
Return to Port Phillip.
West Channel.
Yarra-yarra River.
Melbourne.
Custom of Natives.
Manna.
Visit Geelong.
Station Peak.
Aboriginal Names.
South Channel.
Examine Western Port.
Adventure with a Snake.
Black Swans.
Cape Patterson.
Deep Soundings.
Revisit King and Hunter Islands.
Fire.
Circular Head.
Gales of Wind.
Reid's Rocks.
Sea Elephant Rock.
Wild Dogs.
Navarin and Harbinger Reefs.
Arrive at Port Phillip.
Sail for Sydney.
Pigeon House.
Drought.
Mr. Usborne leaves.

Before quitting Sydney I must express my gratitude for the hospitality we
experienced during our stay, which prepared us with greater cheerfulness
to encounter the difficulties we might expect to meet with in the
boisterous waters that rolled between the then imperfectly known shores,
and islands of Bass Strait. It was not