A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume II Part 4

There were pine trees in the watering gully and on the neighbouring hills; but the best, and also the most convenient, were those upon Entrance Island, some of them being fit to make top masts for ships. The branches are very brittle; but the carpenter thought the trunks to be tough, and superior to the Norway pine, both for spars and planks: turpentine exudes from between the wood and the bark, in considerable quant.i.ties.

For a ship wanting to take in water and pine logs, the most convenient place is under Entrance Island, where we lay in the Investigator; indeed fresh water was not found in any other place; but this anchorage is not tenable against a strong south-east wind. At the entrance of the southern arm, just within Cape Clinton, a ship may lie at all times in perfect safety; and might either be laid on sh.o.r.e or be hove down, there being 3 fathoms close to the rocks, at each end of the beach; it is moreover probable, that fresh water might be there found, or be procured by digging at the foot of the hills. In the southern arm the bottom is muddy; but it is of sand in other parts of the port.

Of the country round Port Bowen not much can be said in praise; it is in general either sandy or stony, and unfit for cultivation; nevertheless, besides pines, there are trees, princ.i.p.ally _eucalyptus_, of moderate size, and the vallies of Cape Clinton are overspread with a tolerably good gra.s.s. No inhabitants were seen, but in every part where I landed, fires had been made, and the woods of Cape Clinton were then burning; the natives had also been upon Entrance Island, which implied them to have canoes, although none were seen. There are kangaroos in the woods; hawks, and the bald-headed mocking bird of Port Jackson are common; and ducks, sea-pies, and gulls frequent the shoals at low water. Fish were more abundant here than in any port before visited; those taken in the seine at the watering beach were princ.i.p.ally mullet, but sharks and flying fish were numerous.

The _lat.i.tude_ of the north-west end of Entrance Island, from an observation taken by lieutenant Flinders in an artificial horizon, is 22 28' 28" south.

_Longitude_ from twelve sets of lunar distances by the same officer, 150 47' 54"; and by the time keepers, 150 45' 36"; but from the fifty sets which fix Broad Sound, and the reduction from thence by survey, the more correct situation will be 150 45' 0" east.

_Dip_ of the south end of the needle, 50 20'.

_Variation_ from azimuths with the theodolite, 7 40' east; but on the top of the island, where my bearings were taken, the variation appeared to be 8 30' east; and 8 in other parts of the port.

The time of high water, as near as it could be ascertained, was _ten hours after_ the moon's pa.s.sage over and under the meridian, being half an hour later than in Keppel Bay; and the tide rises more than nine feet, but how much was not known; it is however to be presumed, from what was observed to the south and to the north of Port Bowen, that the spring tides do not rise less than fifteen feet.

TUESDAY 24 AUGUST 1802

At daylight of the 24th, we steered out of Port Bowen by the northern pa.s.sage, as we had gone in. The wind was from the westward; but so light, that when the ebb tide made from the north-west at ten o'clock, it was necessary to drop the kedge anchor for a time. In the evening we came to, in 10 fathoms fine grey sand, one mile and a half from the main; being sheltered between N. E. by E. and E. by S. by the same cl.u.s.ter of small isles upon which the pine trees had been first seen. In the morning [WEDNESDAY 25 AUGUST 1802] we worked onward along the coast, against a breeze at north-west, till ten o'clock; when the tide being unfavourable, an anchor was dropped in 15 fathoms, sand and sh.e.l.ls, near three islets, of which the middlemost and highest bore S. 29 E., one mile: these were also a part, and the most northern of Harvey's Isles.

A boat was lowered down, and I landed with the botanical gentlemen on the middle islet; where we found gra.s.s and a few shrubs, and also ants, gra.s.shoppers, and lizards. Upon the rocks were oysters of the small, crumply kind, which seemed to indicate that the sea here is not violently agitated; and in the water we saw several large turtle, but were not able to harpoon any of them. Several of the Northumberland Isles were in sight from the top of the islet, and the following observations were taken.

Lat.i.tude, observed in artificial horizon, 22 20' 42"

Longitude, deduced from survey, 150 42 Peaked Islet in the offing bore S. 35 35 E.

Island Head, distant 3 miles, S. 82 45 W.

Cape Townshend, the rock near it, N. 57 45 W.

Northumberland Isle, the 4th, a peak, N. 43 30 W.

When the tide slacked in the afternoon we stretched over towards Island Head, and saw a canoe with two Indians, who made for the sh.o.r.e near a place where the woods were on fire. At dusk we anch.o.r.ed in 18 fathoms, soft mud, in a bight between Island Head and Cape Townshend, at the bottom of which was an opening one mile wide, where captain Cook had suspected an entrance into Shoalwater Bay. The Lady Nelson had fallen to leeward, as usual; and not being come up in the morning [THURSDAY 26 AUGUST 1802], the master was sent ahead of the ship in a boat, and we steered for the opening with a strong flood tide in our favour. From 22 fathoms, the water shoaled to 12, and suddenly to 3, on a rocky bottom, just as we reached the entrance. A kedge anchor was dropped immediately; but seeing that the opening went through, and that the master had deep water further in, it was weighed again, and we backed and filled the sails, drifting up with the tide so long as it continued to run. At nine o'clock the anchor was let go in 6 fathoms, sand and sh.e.l.ls, one mile within the entrance, the points of which bore N. 34 and S. 89 E.; but the extent of deep water was barely sufficient for the ship to swing at a whole cable.

[EAST COAST. STRONG-TIDE Pa.s.sAGE.]

(Atlas, Plate XI.)

Lieutenant Flinders landed on the north side of the entrance, and observed the lat.i.tude 22 17' 53', from an artificial horizon; and a boat was sent to haul the seine upon a beach on the eastern sh.o.r.e, where fish to give half the ship's company a meal was procured. We had no prospect of advancing up the pa.s.sage until the turn of tide, at three in the afternoon; and I therefore landed with a party of the gentlemen, and ascended the highest of the hills on the eastern side. From the top of it we could see over the land into Port Bowen; and some water was visible further distant at the back of it, which seemed to communicate with Shoal-water Bay. Of the pa.s.sage where the ship was lying, there was an excellent view; and I saw not only that Cape Townshend was on a distinct island, but also that it was separated from a piece of land to the west, which captain Cook's chart had left doubtful. Wishing to follow the apparent intention of the discoverer, to do honour to the n.o.ble family of Townshend, I have extended the name of the cape to the larger island, and distinguish the western piece by the name of _Leicester Island_. Besides these, there were many smaller isles scattered in the entrance of Shoal-water Bay; and the southernmost of them, named _Aken's Island_ after the master of the ship, lies in a bight of the western sh.o.r.e. Out at sea there were more of the Northumberland Islands, further westward than those before seen, the largest being not less distant than fifteen leagues; Pier Head, on the west side of Thirsty Sound, was also visible; and in the opposite direction was the highest of the two peaks behind Cape Manifold, the bearing of which connected this station with Port Curtis and Keppel Bay. The view was, indeed, most extensive from this hill; and in compliment to the landscape painter, who made a drawing from thence of Shoal-water Bay and the islands, I named it Mount Westall.* The bearings most essential to the connection of the survey, were these;

Pier Head, the northern extreme, N. 62 40' W.

Aken's Island in Shoal-water Bay, N. 86 55 W.

Pine Mount, on its west side, S. 80 40 W.

Double Mount, S. 56 35 W.

Cape Manifold., highest peak behind it, S. 20 10 E.

West-water Head in Port Bowen, S. 30 25 E.

Northern Harvey's Isles, last station, N. 81 20 E.

Cape Townshend, north-east extreme, N. 20 25 W.

Northumberland Isles, the 4th, a peak, N. 26 25 W.

[* A painting was made of this view, and is now in the Admiralty; but it has not been engraved for the voyage.]

Mount Westall and the surrounding hills are stony, and of steep ascent; pines grow in the gullies, and some fresh water was found there, standing in holes. The lower hills are covered with gra.s.s and trees, as is also the low land, though the soil be shallow and sandy; the wood is mostly _eucalyptus_. No natives were seen during our walk, and only one kangaroo.

At dusk in the evening, when we returned on board, I found the Lady Nelson at anchor near us, and two boats absent from the ship. In hauling them up to be hoisted in, the cutter had been upset from the rapidity of the tides, which ran above four knots, the man in her was thrown out, and the boat went adrift. The man was taken up by the Lady Nelson; but the boatswain, who with two men in a small gig had gone after the cutter, was not heard of till next morning [FRIDAY 27 AUGUST 1802], when he returned without any intelligence of his object, having been bewildered in the dark by the rapid tides in a strange place, and in danger of losing himself.

[EAST COAST. SHOAL-WATER BAY.]

On weighing the kedge anchor to go further up the pa.s.sage, it came up broken near the crown, having in all probability hooked a rock. The Lady Nelson went one mile ahead, a boat was kept sounding close to the ship, and in this manner we drifted up with the flood tide, till half past eight; when another kedge anchor was dropped in 7 fathoms, a short mile from the land on each side, and two from the inner end of the opening.

Lieutenant Fowler was immediately sent away in the whale boat, to search for the lost cutter; and in the mean time we weighed with the afternoon's flood, to get through the pa.s.sage. On approaching a low, triangular island on the eastern sh.o.r.e, the depth diminished quick, and an anchor was let go; but in swinging to it, the ship caught upon a bank of sand and sh.e.l.ls where there was no more than twelve feet water. In half an hour the tide floated her off; and the whale boat having returned, but without any information of the cutter, it was kept ahead; and before dark we anch.o.r.ed in 5 fathoms, at the entrance of Shoalwater Bay.

The opening through which we had come was named _Strong-tide Pa.s.sage_. It is six miles long, and from one to two broad; but half the width is taken up by shoals and rocks, which extend out from each sh.o.r.e and sometimes lie near the mid-channel; and the rapid tides scarcely leave to a ship the choice of her course. The bottom is rocky in the outer entrance, but in the upper part seems more generally to consist of sand and sh.e.l.ls. By the swinging of the ship, it was high water _ten hours after_ the moon's pa.s.sage, and the rise was thirteen feet by the lead; but at the top of the springs it is probably two or three feet greater; and the rate at which the tides then run, will not be less than five miles an hour. It will be perceived, that I do not recommend any ship to enter Shoal-water Bay by this pa.s.sage.

SAt.u.r.dAY 28 AUGUST 1802

In the morning, I went in the whale boat to the westward, both to search for the lost cutter and to advance the survey. In crossing the inner end of Strong-tide Pa.s.sage, my soundings were 5, 4, 3, 2, 2, 3 fathoms, to a rock near the south end of Townshend Island, whence it appeared that the deepest water was close to the Shoals on the eastern side. After searching along the sh.o.r.e of Townshend Island., and amongst the rocky islets near it, I crossed the western channel over to the south end of Leicester Island; where a set of bearings was taken, and the lat.i.tude observed to be 22 18' 17" from an artificial horizon. This channel is about one mile wide, and I proceeded up it until a pa.s.sage out to sea was clearly distinguishable; but although there be from 4 to 7 fathoms with a soft bottom, the deep part is too narrow for a stranger to pa.s.s with a ship. I returned on board in the evening, without having discovered any traces of the lost cutter or seen any thing worthy of particular notice; unless it were three of the large bats, called flying foxes at Port Jackson: when on the wing and at a distance, these animals might be taken for crows.

SUNDAY 29 AUGUST 1802

On the following morning, we got up the anchor and steered further into Shoal-water Bay. The land on the western side appeared to be high; and as the botanists were likely to find more employment there, during the time of my proposed expedition to the head of the bay, than they could promise themselves at any other place, I was desirous of leaving the ship on that side, in a situation convenient for them. After running three miles to the westward, mostly in 3 fathoms, we anch.o.r.ed in 6, till four o'clock, and then again weighed. The soundings became very irregular; and at five, seeing a shoal which extended up and down the middle of the bay, we tacked from it and came to, in 5 fathoms soft bottom, it being then low water.

Mount Westall bore N. 86 E.

Leicester Island, the south end, N. 9 W.

Pine Mount, S. 78 W.

The western land was still six or seven miles distant, but there was no prospect of getting nearer, without taking time to make a previous examination of the shoal; and I therefore embarked early next morning [MONDAY 30 AUGUST 1802] on board the brig, and proceeded towards the head of the Bay.

Steering south-eastward, in a slanting course up the bay from the middle shoal, we had from 5 to 8 fathoms; and pa.s.sed a shallow opening in the eastern low sh.o.r.e, four miles above Strong-tide Pa.s.sage. Three miles higher up there was another opening, near two miles in width; and the wind being then light and foul, I quitted the brig and proceeded three miles up in my boat, when the arm was found to be divided into two branches. Pursuing that which led eastward in a line for Port Bowen, and was three-quarters of a mile wide, I carried a diminishing depth, from 6 fathoms to six feet, above two miles further; and the branch then terminated at the foot of a ridge of hills. I wished much to ascend this ridge, believing that West.w.a.ter Head in Port Bowen, lay close at the back; but the sh.o.r.e was so defended by mud flats and interwoven mangroves, that it was impossible to land.

The other branch of the eastern arm led south-eastward, and was a mile wide, with a depth of 6 fathoms as far as two miles above the division; it then separated into three, but the entrances were shallow and the borders every where muddy and covered with mangroves. I therefore returned to the brig which had anch.o.r.ed at the entrance of the branch; and in the night, we dropped out of the eastern arm with the tide, to be ready for going up the bay with the morning's flood.

TUESDAY 31 AUGUST 1802

On the 31st, in steering for the middle of the bay, the brig grounded upon a spit which runs out from the south point of entrance to the eastern arm, and I believe extends so far down the bay as to join the middle shoal near the ship. The bottom was muddy, and the rising tide soon floated her; but our progress being slow, I went onward in the boat and got into a channel of a mile wide, with regular soundings from 6 to 4 fathoms.

Abreast of the eastern arm, the width of the bay had diminished to about four miles; and in advancing upwards, I found it to go on contracting until, at four miles above the arm, the sh.o.r.es were less than one mile asunder, and the head of the bay a.s.sumed the form of a river, though the water remained quite salt. The depth here was from 4 to 6 fathoms; and the east side of the contracted part being a little elevated, I was able to land and take a set of angles to fix its position. The width and depth continued nearly the same two miles higher up, to a woody islet in the middle of the channel; where the lat.i.tude 22 37' 6" was observed from an artificial horizon, and more bearings taken.

A ship may get up as high as this islet, for the channel is no where less than half a mile wide, nor the depth in it under 3 fathoms; but there the stream divides into several branches, which appeared to terminate amongst the mangroves, similar to the branches of the eastern arm. The largest runs S. S. E; and I could see three or four miles up it, near to the foot of the hills behind Cape Manifold, where it probably ends, as did the southern arm of Port Bowen.

The islet had been visited by Indians, and several trees upon it were notched, similar to what is done by the people of Port Jackson when they ascend in pursuit of opossums. Upon the main, to the west of the islet, where I walked a mile inland, fire Places and other signs of inhabitants were numerous, and still more so were those of the kangaroo; yet neither that animal nor an Indian was seen. Around the extinguished fires were scattered the bones of turtle, and the sh.e.l.ls of crabs, periwinkles, and oysters of the small kind; and in the low grounds I observed many holes, made apparently by the natives in digging for fern roots. An iguana of between two and three feet long, which lay upon the branch of a high tree watching for its prey, was the sole animal killed; but the mud banks are frequented at low water by sea pies of both kinds, curlews, and small cranes.

The soil was stiff, shallow, and often stony; the vegetation consisted of two or three species of _eucalyptus_ and the _casuarina_, not thickly set nor large--of several kinds of shrubs, amongst which a small gra.s.s-tree was abundant--and of gra.s.s, with which the rest of the soil was thinly overspread.

After making my observations, I rejoined the Lady Nelson two miles below the woody islet; but the wind blowing fresh up the bay, and the brig being leewardly, went on and with some difficulty landed on the west side, opposite to the entrance of the eastern arm. This part is stony; but equally low with the rest of the sh.o.r.es, and is probably an island at high water. A confined set of bearings was taken here; and the sun being then nearly down and the brig at anchor, I went on board for the night.

Next afternoon [WEDNESDAY 1 SEPTEMBER 1802], when the ebb tide enabled the vessel to make progress against the strong north-west wind, we beat down in a channel of between one and two miles wide, with soundings from 2 to 8 fathoms; but they were not regular, for the depth was less in some parts of the middle than at the sides of the channel. The wind moderated in the evening; and being then within three miles of the ship, I quitted the brig, and got on board at sunset.

One object of my research in this expedition had been the lost cutter, and orders had been left with lieutenant Fowler to send again into Strong-tide Pa.s.sage upon the same errand, but all was without success.

During my absence, the naturalist and other gentlemen had gone over in the launch to the west side of the bay, where they had an interview with sixteen natives; their appearance was described as being much inferior to the inhabitants of Keppel and Hervey's Bays, but they were peaceable, and seemed to be very hungry. They had bark canoes which, though not so well formed, were better secured at the ends than those of Port Jackson; and in them were spears neatly pointed with pieces of quartz, for striking turtle. The number of bones lying about their fire places bespoke turtle to be their princ.i.p.al food; and with the addition of sh.e.l.l fish, and perhaps fern roots, it is probably their sole support.

The same muddy flats which rendered landing so difficult in the upper parts of the bay, run off to some distance from the sh.o.r.e under _Double Mount_; and the land is low for two or three miles back. The hills then rise, ridge over ridge to a considerable elevation; and at the top are several hummocks, of which two, higher than the rest, obtained for this high land its present name. So far as the gentlemen were able to ascend, the hills were found to be tolerably well covered with pines and other trees; and the soil of the vallies was better than in those near Mount Westall on the opposite side of the bay.