might have been averted.

OUTLET OF LAKE TO THE SEA.

At the termination of the flat they found themselves upon the banks of
the channel, and close to the sand hillock under which my tents had
been pitched. From this point they proceeded along the line of
sand-hills to the outlet; from which it would appear that Kangaroo
Island is not visible, but that the distant point which I mistook for
it was the S.E. angle of Cape Jervis. I have remarked, in describing
that part of the coast, that there is a sand-hill to the eastward of
the inlet, under which the tide runs strong, and the water is deep.
Captain Barker judged the breadth of the channel to be a quarter of a
mile, and he expressed a desire to swim across it to the sand-hill to
take bearings, and to ascertain the nature of the strand beyond it to
the eastward.

It unfortunately happened, that he was the only one of the party who
could swim well, in consequence of which his people remonstrated with
him on the danger of making the attempt unattended. Notwithstanding,
however, that he was seriously indisposed, he stripped, and after Mr.
Kent had fastened his compass on his head for him, he plunged into the
water, and with difficulty gained the opposite side; to effect which
took him nine minutes and fifty-eight seconds. His anxious comrades saw
him ascend the hillock, and take several bearings; he then descended
the farther side, and was never seen by them again.

CIRCUMSTANCES ATTENDING THE LOSS OF CAPTAIN BARKER.

For a considerable time Mr. Kent remained stationary, in momentary
expectation of his return; but at length, taking the two soldiers with
him, he proceeded along the shore in search of wood for a fire. At
about a quarter of a mile, the soldiers stopped and expressed their
wish to return, as their minds misgave them, and they feared that
Captain Barker had met with some accident. While conversing, they heard
a distant shout, or cry, which Mr. Kent thought resembled the call of
the natives, but which the soldiers positively declared to be the voice
of a white man. On their return to their companions, they asked if any
sounds had caught their ears, to which they replied in the negative.
The wind was blowing from the E.S.E., in which direction Captain Barker
had gone; and, to me, the fact of the nearer party not having heard
that which must have been his cries for assistance, is satisfactorily
accounted for, as, being immediately under the hill, the sounds m