, and might
have proved fatal to their little vessel, they hauled out to the SSW; but
the weather remained moderate.

On the following morning the wind flew round to the northward, and they
continued their route along the shore. Early in the forenoon they passed
a singularly formed point, with a number of lumps of rock lying some two
or three miles off it to the SW. It resembled an artificial pier, or
mole, with warehouses upon it, and a lighthouse on the end next the
water. Large masses of detached oblong rocks gave the appearance of
warehouses, and a remarkably long one standing upon its end, that of the
light-house.

Their latitude at noon was 42 degrees 02 minutes and the longitude 145
degrees 16 minutes; the coast still trended to the SSE and the land began
to change that uniformly regular figure which it had hitherto preserved.
It was becoming mountainous and uneven, but was still barren.

CHAPTER XVI

The _Norfolk_ passes the strait
Observations thereon
Proceeds to the southward
Passes the S. W. Cape; and S. Cape
Remarks on the latter
De Witt's Isles
Storm Bay Passage
Tasman's Head
Fluted Cape
Frederick Henry Bay
Enter the Derwent river, first seen in the ship _Duke_, of Bengal
Observations on the Derwent
Some natives seen
Particulars of one
Venomous snake
One destroys itself
Comparison between New South Wales and Van Dieman's Land
Arrive at Port Jackson
Advantages of the strait

Mr. Bass and his fellow voyager, Lieutenant Flinders, did not hesitate
now to think that they had passed through the strait, and from the
Pacific had entered the southern Indian ocean; for what within the extent
of a vast sea could give birth to the monstrous swell that was rolling in
before their eyes? and the coast was evidently trending towards the SW
cape.

Mr. Bass says (with all the feeling and spirit of an explorer), that 'he
already began to taste the enjoyment resulting from the completion of
this discovery, which had been commenced in the whale-boat, under a
complication of anxieties, hazard, and fatigue, known only to those who
conducted her;' modestly sharing the praises, to which he alone was
entitled, with those who accompanied him.

It was worthy of remark (Mr. Bass says), that the northern shore of the
strait from Wilson's Promontory (seen in the whale-boat) to Western Port
resembled the bluff bold shore of an open sea, with a swell rolling in,
and a large surf breaking upon it; while the s