urse a little to
the westward, and at 4 p.m. entered an arm of the lake leading W.S.W.
On the point, at the entrance, some natives had assembled, but I could
not communicate with them. They were both painted and armed, and
evidently intended to resist our landing. Wishing, however, to gain
some information from them, I proceeded a short distance below their
haunt, and landed for the night, in hopes that, seeing us peaceably
disposed, they would have approached the tents; but as they kept aloof,
we continued our journey in the morning. The water, which had risen ten
inches during the night, had fallen again in the same proportion, and
we were stopped by shoals shortly after starting. In hopes that the
return of tide would have enabled us to float over them, we waited for
it very patiently, but were ultimately obliged to drag the boat across
a mud-flat of more than a quarter of a mile into deeper water; but,
after a run of about twenty minutes, were again checked by sand banks.
My endeavours to push beyond a certain point were unsuccessful, and I
was at length under the necessity of landing upon the south shore for
the night. Some small hummocks were behind us, on the other side of
which I had seen the ocean from our morning's position; and whilst the
men were pitching the tents, walked over them in company with Mr.
M'Leay to the sea shore, having struck the coast at Encounter Bay, Cape
Jervis, bearing by compass S. 81 degrees W. distant between three and
four leagues, and Kangaroo Island S.E. extremity S. 60 degrees W.
distant from nine to ten.

Thirty-two days had elapsed since we had left the depot, and I
regretted in this stage of our journey, that I could not with prudence
remain an hour longer on the coast than was necessary for me to
determine the exit of the lake. From the angle of the channel on which
we were, a bright sand-hill was visible at about nine miles distance to
the E.S.E.; which, it struck me, was the eastern side of the passage
communicating with the ocean. Having failed in our attempts to proceed
further in the boat, and the appearance of the shoals at low water
having convinced me of the impracticability of it, I determined on an
excursion along the sea-shore to the southward and eastward, in anxious
hopes that it would be a short one; for as we had had a series of winds
from the S.W. which had now changed to the opposite quarter, I feared
we should have to pull across the lake in our way homewards.