" Wind failing, very little
progress was made till noon, and at sunset the shores appeared to be
closing round. The absence of tide gave no prospect of finding a river at
the head of the gulf. Early on the morning of the 30th Flinders went out
in a boat, accompanied by Robert Brown, and rowed up to the mud-flats at
the head of the gulf. Picking out a narrow channel, it was found possible
to get within half a mile of dry land. Then, leaving the boat, Flinders
and Brown walked along a bank of mud and sand to the shore, to examine
the country. Flinders ascended one of the foot-hills of the range that
forms the backbone of Yorke's Peninsula, stretching north and south
upwards of two hundred miles.

At dawn on March 31st the Investigator was got under way to proceed down
the eastern side of Yorke's Peninsula. The wind was contrary, and the
work could be done only "partially," though, of course, sufficiently well
to complete the chart. The peninsula was described as "singular in form,
having some resemblance to a very ill-shaped leg and foot." Its length
from Cape Spencer to the northern junction with the mainland was
calculated to be 105 miles. On April 1st Flinders was able to write that
the exploration of St. Vincent's Gulf was finished.

The general character of the country, especially on the east, he
considered to be superior to that on the borders of Spencer's Gulf; and
the subsequent development of the State of South Australia has justified
his opinion. He would assuredly have desired to linger longer upon the
eastern shore, could he have foreseen that within forty years of the
discovery there would be laid there the foundations of the noble city of
Adelaide, with its fair and fruitful olive-groves, vineyards, orchards
and gardens, and its busy port, whither flow the wheat of vast plains and
the wool from a million sheep leagues upon leagues away.

A second visit to Kangaroo Island was necessitated by a desire to make
corrections in the Investigator's timekeepers, and on this occasion a
somewhat longer stay was made. The ship arrived on April 2nd, and did not
leave again till the 7th.

Very few aboriginals were seen upon the shores of the two gulfs, and
these only through a telescope. At Port Lincoln some blacks were known to
be in the neighbourhood, but the expedition did not succeed in getting
into contact with them. Flinders scrupulously observed the policy of
doing nothing to alarm them; and his remarks in this