Next morning we
examined the south-west part of Grant island, and moved the ship to a
more secure anchorage off its North-East point. Port Western is formed
between Grant and French islands in rather a remarkable manner: two great
bays lie one within the other, the inner being nearly filled up by French
island, whilst the outer is sheltered by Grant Island, stretching across
it almost from point to point, and leaving a wide ship-channel on its
western side, whilst on the eastern the passage is narrow and fit only
for boats and small vessels.

Gales between North-West and South-West detained us here until the 19th.
We found water by digging on the North-East extreme of Grant Island,
which at high tide is a low sandy islet. On first landing there, we found
in a clump of bushes a kangaroo, very dark-coloured, indeed almost black.
His retreat being cut off he took to the water, and before a boat could
reach him, sank. This not only disappointed but surprised us; for in
Tasmania a kangaroo has been known to swim nearly two miles. Black swans
were very numerous, and it being the moulting season, were easily run
down by the boats. Their outstretched necks and the quick flap of their
wings as they moved along, reminded us forcibly of a steamboat. At this
season of the year when the swans cannot fly, a great act of cruelty is
practised on them by those who reside on the Islands in Bass Strait, and
of whom I have before spoken as sealers: they take them in large numbers
and place them in confinement, without anything to eat, in fact almost
starve them to death, in order that the down may not be injured by the
fat which generally covers their bodies.

Scarcely any traces are now to be found of the old settlement on a cliffy
point of the eastern shore of the harbour. The rapid growth of indigenous
vegetation has completely concealed all signs of human industry, and the
few settlers in the neighbourhood have helped themselves to the bricks to
build their own homes.

We noticed, however, one or two remaining indications of the fact that a
settlement had formerly existed on that spot, among others an old
flagstaff still erect, on a bluff near the North-East end of Grant
Island. A very large domestic cat, also, was seen on the South-East
point, doubtless another relic of the first settlers.

The rocks chiefly to be met with at Port Western are analogous to those
of the Carboniferous series. Over its eastern shore rises a range of