Discoveries in Australia Volume II Part 38

Cape Wellington, the eastern projection of the Promontory, forms the north point of Waterloo Bay, which is wide and s.p.a.cious. These names were suggested by the fact that the day of our anchoring there was the anniversary of one of the greatest triumphs ever achieved by British arms. At the head of the bay, lies the low valley, three miles in length, which stretches across the promontory and forms a very conspicuous break in the high land. On the northern side of it, the highest hill, Mount Wilson, rises abruptly until its woody crest reaches an elevation of 2350 feet. On the southern, was a ridge strewn over with immense boulders of granite, one, near where I stood, measuring eighty feet in height, and resting with such apparent insecurity, that little seemed required to send it rolling and crashing into the valley below, along which a rivulet winds, and falls into the sea at the north end of a sandy beach, forming the head of Waterloo Bay. The depth in the middle of the latter is 12 fathoms, muddy bottom; it lies four miles from the south end of the Promontory, and there is no good anchorage between.

SAIL FOR PORT DALRYMPLE.

From a small flattened sugarloaf, forming the summit of Cape Wellington, I got an angle to the Crocodile Rock,* and with others from the south-west end of the Promontory, and from the ship on pa.s.sing, I determined the position of this danger most satisfactorily.

(*Footnote. This rock, in lat.i.tude 39 degrees 21 minutes 30 seconds South, and longitude 4 degrees 41 minutes 45 seconds West of Sydney, lies in a line midway between the western extremities of Curtis and Rodondo Islands, nearly nine miles from each. It is a smooth round-topped granite boulder, just protruding above the surface; and in fine weather the sea runs over it without breaking. The depth being 43 fathoms close to it, if the waters of the Strait were drawn off the shape of it would be that of a column nearly 260 feet high.)

As we had not, as I expected, met the Vansittart, I was anxious to learn something of her, and crossing over to the south side of the Strait, for the purpose, entered Port Dalrymple, where I found that Mr. Forsyth and his party had preceded our arrival by a day or two. The Vansittart's employment had been the examination of the north-east extreme of Tasmania, some portions of which were found to be nine miles out in lat.i.tude; the greater part was fronted with kelp and rocky patches. The work, also, included a portion of Banks' Strait, and the southern part of the western side of Flinders Island, among the islets fronting which were discovered several good anchorages: the best in westerly winds being under Goose or Western Chappell Island, where a lighthouse was in course of construction.

YORK TOWN.

His Excellency, Sir John Franklin, requesting that I would send the Vansittart round to Macquarie Harbour, on the west coast, after a party of runaway convicts, we were for a time deprived of her services. As the rise of the tide in the Tamar was sufficient for laying the ship ash.o.r.e, I took the opportunity of doing so on the west bank, just above Garden Island, to examine her bottom, and found it so defective that 130 sheets of copper were required to make good the damage; in some places the two-inch sheathing was completely destroyed. The original settlement, York Town, was at the head of a shoal bight just above us; I found it almost quite in ruins, though there were one or two of the original settlers there; the chief part of the inhabitants were a lawless set, who were said to live, chiefly, by plunder.

LAUNCESTON.

Whilst the ship underwent these repairs, the triangulation was extended to Launceston,* at the head of the Tamar, thirty miles from the sea.

Large vessels are prevented from approaching close to the town by a bar.

The greatest difficulty found in navigating the river is Whirlpool Reach; near the middle of this lies a rock, an attempt to remove which, by blasting, was made; the top was blown off, so that now vessels are liable to be carried upon it, whereas, before, when it broke the surface, such was not the case.

(*Footnote. The lat.i.tude of the Port office I found to be 41 degrees 26 minutes 5 seconds South longitude 4 degrees 42 minutes 24 seconds West of Sydney. High water 3 hours 35 minutes; springs rise 12 feet. During the winter, after rains, the stream sets down for days together at the rate of from one to three knots.)

The valley, through which the Tamar winds, is narrow, with sides generally steep and densely wooded; in some places, the reaches are wide, and the hills recede; on their lower slopes, near Launceston, are situated many pretty villas, peeping through garden shrubberies; whilst further down are the straggling habitations of the more recent settlers, surrounded by clear patches, with difficulty won from the forest by the axe and the firebrand. On the whole, therefore, it may be said that art and nature combine to render beautiful the scenery on the banks of this important stream.

The first view of Launceston, the second town in Tasmania, is very pretty. The valley of the river expands as you approach, and over a low tract of land on the east bank, the straggling ma.s.s of buildings forming the town is descried. Though very healthy it lies on a kind of flat, backed with open woodland undulations at the junction of the North and South Esks; and, during the winter, is subject to fogs so dense that many persons well acquainted with the town frequently lose themselves. Where the streams unite, they become the Tamar, one of the princ.i.p.al rivers in Tasmania. At the distance of half a mile from the confluence, the North Esk makes a by no means insignificant waterfall. This forms one of the first sights to which strangers arriving at Launceston are conducted, by a path which, winding along the face of a precipice, suddenly brings the cataract in sight, tumbling and roaring over the rocks into the pool, which seethes like a cauldron below, and sends up a steaming mist into the air. From the waters of the South Esk, the country around Launceston derives its fertility; and perhaps there is no part of our southern colonies that more resembles England. The number of gentlemen's seats, before alluded to, thickly scattered over an undulating country cleared of all timber, save a few monumental trees, and well cultivated, strongly suggested thoughts of home.

GEORGE TOWN.

When the weather permitted, the boats were employed in continuing the survey of Port Dalrymple. Observations were made at the flagstaff in George Town,* which we found to be in lat.i.tude 41 degrees 6 minutes 20 seconds South and longitude 4 degrees 23 minutes 44 seconds West of Sydney; variation 9 3/4 East. This place is only a straggling village, situated on the east bank, about three miles and a half from the mouth of the Tamar, upon a flat, forming the north side of a snug cove at the western foot of a group of conical hills; on one of them is a signal station, by means of which, with another intervening, communication is kept up with Launceston.

(*Footnote. The geological formation in the neighbourhood of this place will be found in Volume 1.)

CRAGGY ISLAND.

The entire month of July was occupied by the repairs of the ship, and the surveying operations; when we sailed from the Tamar and examined the pa.s.sage at the eastern entrance of the strait, between Craggy Island and Flinders, which we found perfectly free from danger--a fact of great importance, as it had, hitherto, been reported full of sunken rocks. The Beagle pa.s.sed a mile and a half from the south side of Craggy Island in 25 and 28 fathoms. This pa.s.sage has a depth of 26 and 27 fathoms, and is six miles wide, whilst between Wright's Rock and Kent Group the width is nearly eleven miles. There appears, by the ripplings, to be foul ground between Craggy Island and Endeavour Reef, and the s.p.a.ce intervening has, accordingly, been marked as one shoal in the chart.

THE BEAGLE ORDERED HOME.

Leaving the eastern entrance of the strait, we ran up to Sydney, for the supplies that had not arrived from England on our last visit; we now found them waiting for us, together with orders for the Beagle to return to England. Fortunately, however, the survey of Ba.s.s Strait was in such a forward state, thanks to Sir John Franklin's kind a.s.sistance in lending the Vansittart, that I could take upon myself the responsibility of waiting a few months to complete it.* I was, however, compelled by the brief interval of time allowed me, and the urgent demand that existed for a correct chart of the whole strait, to work on a smaller scale than I could have wished. It seemed to me that detached portions on a very large scale would be of far inferior utility to a complete survey on a comparatively small one.

(*Footnote. This step was approved of by the Commander in chief.)

It was not, however, my being prevented from completing Ba.s.s Strait in the manner most satisfactory to myself that occasioned the greatest part of the regret that accompanied this summons for the old Beagle to wend her way homewards; for we were thus also deprived of the opportunity of gratifying our desire to explore the southern parts of New Guinea, which we had always looked forward to as one of the most interesting parts of our voyage, containing elements of excitement sufficient to cheer the hearts that were yearning for home, and a character of novelty that would have amply compensated for whatever fatigue and exertion we might have experienced. On many occasions, during the heavy and monotonous part of our labours, the antic.i.p.ated delights of discovery refreshed our imaginations and elevated our spirits, imparting to our most irksome occupations an interest that did not belong to them, but was borrowed from those hoped-for scenes of adventure on the unvisited sh.o.r.es of New Guinea to which we believed that each dull day's hard work brought us nearer. But it was not destined to be our lot to add any more new lands to the geography of this part of the world; and H.M.S. Fly and Bramble had been commissioned at home for surveying service in Australasia. This expedition, under the command of Captain F.P. Blackwood, arrived at Sydney on the 10th of October, whilst we were there, and sailed soon after our departure, to commence tracing the outer Barrier Reefs, a service attended with no ordinary risk, but which has been happily completed, and a beacon erected to show vessels the best entrance, without a mishap.

Since the early part of this work was written this valuable addition to the survey of New Holland has induced an enterprising master of a merchant vessel to try the eastward pa.s.sage through Torres Strait. As a proof of the practicability of this route I may state, that the above vessel pa.s.sed through Torres Strait in January, went to Sydney, and returned for another cargo to Ballytown, in Allas Strait, by the May following. This pa.s.sage, an account of which has been published in the Nautical Magazine, was made through the Barrier Reef by Captain Blackwood's Beacon on Raines Islet; but as this is out of the limits of the westerly monsoon, a better pa.s.sage, doubtless, would have been effected by following a more northerly route, as recommended by Captain Blackwood.*

(*Footnote. See Nautical Magazine for December 1845.)

STEAM COMMUNICATION BETWEEN INDIA AND AUSTRALIA.

With reference, however, to the antic.i.p.ated steam communication* between India and Australia, which will bring Sydney within nearly sixty days of England, I think with Captain Blackwood that steamers should at all times use Captain King's inner route;** and much of the delay occasioned by anchoring at night would be obviated by cautiously approaching, at reduced speed, the reefs, the position of which might be distinguished by means of a powerful light at the vessel's head or bowsprit end; when a course might be shaped for the next and so on. As the smooth water within the shelter of the Great Barrier Reefs affords facilities for steering with great nicety, a steamer, with care, might effect a saving of fuel as well as time by pa.s.sing through Torres Strait without anchoring.

(*Footnote. Steam communication between Sydney and Singapore would require three vessels of six hundred tons, one of which should leave Sydney and Singapore on the 1st of each month. Their engines should be of 200 horse-power, and furnished with tubular boilers, which consume a fifth less fuel than the others; they must carry at the least 200 tons, which, at the rate of 14 tons per diem, is sufficient for fourteen days fullspeed steaming, in which time, at the rate of 7 knots an hour, 2,352 miles will have been traversed, which is about 100 miles more than the distance between Sydney and Port Essington, and about 420 miles more than between the latter place and Singapore. This clearly shows that Port Essington is, as I have before stated, the best place for a coal-depot; and that one there would suffice for the whole line of communication. As, moreover, it is necessary that such a station should have protection against the natives, it further enhances the value of the settlement at Port Essington. This depot might be economically made, from the cheapness and abundance of coals in New South Wales; and the number of ships that are constantly pa.s.sing Port Essington in ballast would be glad of the freight so far. The cost of steam vessels of the size mentioned would be about 20,000 pounds, if built of wood, and 16,000 pounds, if of iron; and the annual expense of running one would be between 3,000 and 4000 pounds.)

(**Footnote. On this insh.o.r.e track steamers would be able to replace with wood any deficiency in their fuel. I take this opportunity of saying that vessels carrying troops from Sydney to India should be compelled to use it, the chances of the loss of life being much less. On one occasion a ship called the Ferguson sailed from Sydney with part of a regiment, whilst we were there. The master ridiculed the advice given him by one of the Beagle's officers, to take the inner pa.s.sage. The next news we heard of her was, that she had been wrecked on the outer Barrier at four in the morning; no observation having been taken since the previous noon, by which they might have found a current drifting them to the northward.

Fortunately, another ship was in company, and saved the loss of life, but that of property was great. The fact that the lives of so many souls should be placed at the mercy of careless masters of ships, who run such risks, in spite of the warnings of experience, deserves the serious attention of Government.)

NEW GUINEA.

The part of New Guinea above alluded to, which had often afforded us the materials of interesting speculation, also formed part of the survey of Captain Blackwood, who writes as follows: "On the coast of New Guinea we found a delta of fine rivers, and a numerous population, all indicating a rich and fruitful country. It is true that we found the inhabitants very hostile; but it must be considered that we were the first Europeans that they had ever seen; and I have no doubt that, on a further acquaintance, and convinced of our power, they might be easily conciliated. Their houses, arms, and cultivation, all indicate a considerable degree of civilization, and no small intelligence in the construction of their canoes; and I think it probable that a trade might be opened with this. .h.i.therto perfectly unknown people and country."* The people inhabiting the islands fronting the coast, Captain Blackwood found to be highly inclined to trade, readily bartering a valuable species of tortoise-sh.e.l.l for European articles of hardware.

(*Footnote. See Nautical Magazine for December 1845.)

H.M.S. FAVOURITE.

During our stay at Sydney we also met H.M.S. Favourite, Captain T.R.

Sullivan, just returned from visiting the Eastern Polynesian Isles, having succeeded in rescuing the guns that were lost from the ship in a melancholy and much to be lamented affray with the natives of Tongataboo, previous to the command of Captain Sullivan, whose adventure in this affair was very interesting, and cleverly managed.

HURRICANE.

The Favourite had experienced a hurricane* off Mangaia Island, the natives of which gave notice of its approach; and at Tahiti Captain Sullivan was also told that he might expect a hurricane before long. From this, and the experience of other navigators, it appears that rotatory gales are prevalent in the Pacific as well as in the Indian Ocean.

(*Footnote. Although this hurricane has been noticed, and the Favourite's Log published in the Nautical Magazine, I think it will be useful to continue the practice of entering into some detail respecting every hurricane that came under my observation. This storm, it appears, was encountered off Mangaia, one of the Harvey Isles, lying about midway between the Society and Hapai Groups. The Favourite was in lat.i.tude 21 degrees 58 minutes South, longitude 158 degrees 02 minutes West, five miles South-West by West from Mangaia, at noon on the 17th December, 1842, steering West by South 1/2 South before a moderate gale from East-North-East, with cloudy rainy weather. At 3 P.M. she had gone 27 miles, when the wind, which had increased to a strong gale, veering to North-East, the course before it was now South-West; but at the end of another hour, having run eight miles, the wind increased to a storm, and veering again to the eastward, the ship was brought to the wind on the port tack under a main trysail. For the hours 5 and 6, she headed from South to South-West, which would give for the direction of the wind about South-East by East. At 6.30 a man was washed away with the lee quarter-boat. At 8, the wind had veered to South by West, having blown a hurricane, with constant rain for the last hour; at 9 most of the half-ports were washed away, the sea making a clean sweep over the decks.

By midnight the wind had subsided to a whole gale; but still veering had reached the West-South-West point, and at 3 the next morning it was blowing only a moderate breeze from West-North-West, with tolerably clear weather. Sail was now made, and a South-West by South course held for 28 miles, when by the noon observation the lat.i.tude was 22 degrees 1 minute South, longitude, by chronometer, 158 degrees 44 minutes West. The day following the hurricane the wind was moderate from the westward; and on that previous to it of about the same strength from the northward. The ship's position at noon of the latter day was about 130 miles to the North-East by East of Mangaia Island. The duration of this storm, then, may be considered to have been from 4 P.M. to midnight, in which eight hours the wind had veered gradually from East round by South to West-South-West. The veering being much more rapid between 8 and 9 P.M.

when the storm was at its height, the ship must at that time, have been nearer the focus. The tack on which the Favourite was hove to carried her into the course of the hurricane, or rather placed her in a position to be overtaken by it, as it pa.s.sed along to the southward and westward; but as the ship broke off to the westward and northward, she fell out of its north-western edge. Doubtless, if a West-North-West course had been pursued in the first instance, or at noon on the 17th, the Favourite would have avoided the storm. It is to be regretted that the barometer was broken in the commencement of the hurricane, when it was unusually low, having been falling for some time before. Besides this, there was ample warning in the unusually gloomy lurid appearance of the sky; the weather also was misty, with showers of rain as the ship approached the course of the storm.)

BANKS STRAIT.

Leaving Sydney, we resumed our work to the southward; and towards the end of October anch.o.r.ed under Swan Island, lying midway on the south side of Banks Strait, which trends West by North, with a width of twelve miles, a length of seventeen, and a depth of from 16 to 25 fathoms; it is formed by the north-east point of Tasmania and the islands lying to the south of Flinders. Barren Island, one of the latter, has a remarkable peak at its south-eastern end, and some high rounded hills on the north-western; it is twenty-two miles in extent, lying in an east and west direction. It is separated from Flinders by a channel, which I named after Sir John Franklin, four miles wide, thickly strewed with islands and shoals. The eastern entrance is almost blocked up by sandbanks, extending off five miles and a half from a large island (called by us after the Vansittart, but known to the sealers by the name of Gun-carriage Island) and leaving only a narrow, shifting pa.s.sage of 2 and 4 fathoms between their northern side and Flinders Island. The anchorages which lie in the western part of Franklin Channel are not so sheltered as those between Barren and Clarke Islands. The latter has two rounded summits, the highest 690 feet, resembling a saddle, either from west or east. The rugged peaks of Strzelecki, reaching an elevation of 2,550 feet, rise immediately over the northern point of the west entrance of Franklin Channel.

BLACK REEF.

The north-east extreme of Tasmania is singularly low, with a coastline of sandhills. Out of this level tract rise Mounts William and Cameron; the latter, 1,730 feet high, is the highest of a group of peaks, cresting a ridge, whilst the former is a solitary pyramidal hill, 730 feet high, used as a guide for craft in working through the strait. When it bears South by West, vessels may close with the south sh.o.r.e, being then past the Black Reef,* and the rocks that lie off the coast to the eastward, as far as Eddystone Point. The most outlying and remarkable are the St.

George's Rocks, a cl.u.s.ter of grey granite boulders, 66 feet high; a patch of moored kelp, however, on which the water sometimes breaks, lies three miles East-South-East from the Black Reef. The princ.i.p.al danger on the northern side of the eastern entrance of the strait is Moriarty Bank, which extends off four miles and a half east from the south-east point of Clarke Island; there is, however, a narrow pa.s.sage of 16 fathoms close to the latter. This Bank, which has a couple of rocks near its north-eastern part, is steep to, and may be avoided by keeping the south point of Clarke Island, to bear to the southward of West 12 degrees North. Mount William, also, bearing South 7 degrees West clears the outer end of it.

(*Footnote. This reef is a low, dark, rocky islet, with reefs extending off North 45 degrees West three quarters of a mile, and South 56 degrees East, one mile. There is a pa.s.sage of 7 fathoms, a mile wide, between it and the main, through which the highest St. George's Rock, bearing South 52 degrees East, leads. Black Reef bears from the latter North 45 degrees West, six miles and a half, and from the summit of Swan Island, South 53 degrees East, eight miles and three-quarters. Mount William, also, bears from it South 22 degrees West.)

I may here mention, that the importance of Banks Strait is great, as all the trade between Hobart, Launceston, and Port Phillip, pa.s.ses through it.

SWAN ISLAND.

Swan Island is a narrow hummocky strip of land, a mile and a half long, trending South-West by West; the loftiest part, 90 feet high, near the north end,* was selected by Sir John Franklin for the site of a lighthouse, the foundation of which he laid, after resigning the reins of government; it was the last benefit he was able to confer on the colony.

(*Footnote. In lat.i.tude 40 degrees 43 minutes 36 seconds South, longitude 3 degrees 5 minutes 50 seconds West of Sydney, and 148 degrees 10 minutes 10 seconds East of Greenwich; variation, 10 east.)

A well of indifferent water was found near the north-west end of the island; and some sealers had recently turned loose a couple of pigs, to which I added a third.

Two small islets lie one mile and a half West-North-West from Swan Island, and a dangerous patch of rocks, one and a quarter North-West by West from the summit; they are all connected with the large island by shoal water.