end of Robbin
Island. And it was well we did so; for during the following two days, it
blew the heaviest gale we had yet met with in the Strait. A succession of
violent gusts from the west, with loud thunder, vivid lightning, and much
rain, constantly reminded us of the wisdom of our cautious proceeding. At
Port Phillip this same storm was felt very severely. Such was its
strength and violence, that many houses were unroofed, and other damage
done to a large amount. It passed over both Melbourne and Geelong,
darkening the air with the clouds of dust it bore along with it, and
filling the minds of the inhabitants with the greatest terror and
apprehension. They called it a tornado; and it appeared to have quite the
rotatory character of a hurricane.

February 11.

We left this anchorage, and passed three miles from the North-East side
of Three Hummock Island where we found only six fathoms, apparently on a
bank thrown up by the tide sweeping round its sides. From thence we
steered across the Strait to Sea Elephant Rock on the eastern shore of
King Island. We saw nothing of the islands laid down by the French,
thirteen leagues east of it, and it was my firm belief that they had no
existence. Subsequent observation has confirmed this belief. We however
found the shoal water supposed to exist thereabouts.

The northern termination of the highland over the south-eastern part of
the island which marks Sea Elephant Bay was very apparent as we
approached. In the evening we anchored in seven fathoms on the north side
of Sea Elephant Rock, which we visited the following morning. It is
nearly a mile in circumference, and 120 feet high, clothed with a coarse
wiry grass. A small vessel if properly moored might find shelter under it
from easterly gales. We were surprised to find the time of high-water
here nearly two hours earlier than at Three Hummock Island; the
flood-stream came from the southward.

WILD DOGS.

Of the number of wild dogs that we had heard of as being on this island,
we saw only two. From the bones we found of others it is more than
probable that they live upon each other at the seasons of the year when
the mutton birds having departed; they would otherwise have to depend
solely for subsistence on the few shellfish adhering to the rocks. This
reminded me of what I once witnessed on an island off the eastern coast
of Patagonia. Several herds of deer had once existed upon it; but some
persons having turned a num