Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2 | Page 4

Sc.

HUMMOCK ISLAND. Highest part 400 feet, bearing South-East 20
miles.
...

JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY.
CHAPTER 2.
1.
Leave Port Essington. Clarence Strait. Hope Inlet. Shoal Bay. Land for
Observations. Explore a new Opening. Talc Head. Port Darwin.
Continue Exploration. Mosquitoes and Sandflies. Nature of the Country.
Its parched appearance. Large ant's nest. Return to Shoal Bay. Visit
from the Natives. Remarks. Their teeth perfect. Rite of Circumcision.
Observations on the Migrations of the Natives. Theory of an Inland Sea.
Central Desert. Salt water drunk by Natives. Modes of procuring water.
Survey the harbour. Natives on a raft. Anecdote. Bynoe Harbour. Well.
Brilliant Meteors. Natives on Point Emery. Their surprise at the well.
Importance of water. Anecdote. Languages of Australia. Specimens.
Remarks. Leave Port Darwin. Tides. Squall. Visit Port Patterson. Leave.
Examine opening to the south-west. Table Hill. McAdam Range.
Adventure with an Alligator. Exploring party. Discovery of the
Victoria. Ascend the river. Appearance of the Country. Fitzmaurice
River. Indian Hill. The Beagle taken up the river.
LEAVE PORT ESSINGTON.
Early on the morning of the 4th of September, 1839, the Beagle was
once more slipping out of Port Essington before a light land wind. We
had taken a hearty farewell of our friends at Victoria, in whose
prosperity we felt all the interest that is due to those who pioneer the
way for others in the formation of a new settlement. No doubt the hope
that our discoveries might open a new field for British enterprise, and
contribute to extend still more widely the blessings of civilization,

increased the sympathy we felt for the young colony at Victoria. There
is always a feeling of pride and pleasure engendered by the thought that
we are in any way instrumental to the extension of man's influence over
the world which has been given him to subdue. In the present instance,
the success of our last cruise and the state of preparation in which we
were now in for a longer one, caused us to take our departure from Port
Essington in far higher spirits than on the former occasion.
PASS THROUGH CLARENCE STRAIT.
We again shaped our course for Clarence Strait, the western entrance of
which was still unexamined. The wind, however, being light, we passed
the night in Popham Bay; and on leaving next morning, had only six
fathoms in some tide ripplings nearly two miles off its south point,
Cape Don. We passed along the south side of Melville Island, where a
large fire was still burning. Early in the evening we anchored in seven
fathoms, to wait for a boat that had been sent to examine a shoal bay on
the North-West side of Cape Keith. Green Ant Cliffs bore South-West
two miles.
September 7.
Weighing at daylight we hauled up south, into the middle of the
channel, crossing a ridge of 5 1/2 fathoms; Ant Cliffs bearing
West-South-West five miles, and three or four from the shore. This
ridge appears to be thrown up at the extremity of the flats fronting the
shore. On deepening the water to 10 and 12 fathoms, the course was
changed to West 1/2 South, passing midway between North Vernon
Isle and Cape Gambier, where the width of the channel is seven miles,
though the whole of it is not available for the purposes of navigation, a
long detached reef lying three miles from the Cape, and a small one
two miles from the North Vernon Isle.* The tide hurried the Beagle
past between these reefs with some rapidity, the soundings at the time
being 19 fathoms.
(*Footnote. These isles, three in number, lying quite in the centre of the
western entrance of the Strait, are fringed with extensive coral reefs.
There are, however, deep passages between them.)

Having cleared Clarence Strait, and found it to be perfectly navigable
with common precaution (which in a slight degree enhanced the value
of the discovery of the Adelaide) our course was directed for a bay to
the southward, which Captain King had not examined. A very
refreshing cool north-westerly seabreeze* had just succeeded a short
calm. Passing four miles from the western extremity of the Vernon
Isles, we had irregular soundings of ten and seven fathoms. The
ripplings and discoloured water are a warning that they should be
approached with caution on this side.
(*Footnote. The seabreeze prevailing from the westward through
Clarence Strait, the passage to Port Essington from the westward,
during the easterly monsoon, might be more easily made by passing
through it, instead of working along the north side of Melville Island.)
The mouth of a considerable inlet came in sight at the head of a bay as
we advanced towards it, steering South by East. This opening began to
appear of consequence as we drew near, although the singularly