We again bade adieu to our friends at Sydney, and sailed to explore the north-western part of the continent, which from the number of openings still unexamined, possessed the interest that invariably attaches to whatever is unknown. We submitted, accordingly, with impatience to the delay caused by light north-westerly winds, and a southerly current of nearly a knot per hour, which prevented us from reaching the parallel of Port Macquarie before the 29th; when about forty miles from it we experienced a gale,* from North-East and East-North-East, that lasted till the evening of the next day, when we found ourselves about 140 miles South-East of Port Stephens. During this gale the southerly current increased its velocity to two miles an hour, and its strength appeared to be about seventy miles from the land. This delay rendered it necessary to obtain a fresh chronometric departure, and as the winds prevented our returning to Port Jackson, we proceeded to Port Stephens, where we anchored, June 5th. We found the Admiralty chart of the coast in the neighbourhood very defective, some islands being completely omitted, whilst others were much misplaced. (*Footnote. This gale was from South-East at Sydney, and the most severe they had experienced for many years; it blew many vessels adrift and did other damage.) REMARKABLE HEADLANDS. PORT STEPHENS. I have before spoken of the change in the features of this portion of the eastern coast. Here a number of conical hills, from four to six hundred feet in height, suddenly presented themselves to our view, two of them, very remarkable headlands, and preserving the aboriginal names of Yacaba and Tomare, constitute the entrance points of Port Stephens. The sea-face of Tomare is a high line of cliffs, from which projects a sand-spit, leaving only a narrow entrance. When in this I noticed that a round hill at the south end of a distant range, was over the opening between the first island and the northern shore of the harbour. Within the entrance are extensive sandbanks, leaving between them and the south shore a narrow, and in some parts deep, channel, subject to a rapid stream of tide. Port Stephens may be considered a large estuary, about fifteen miles in length, contracted near the centre to a width of about a mile, which is further lessened by the presence of a woody islet, the same I have before alluded to. Nearly two miles within this narrow the Beagle anchored off the settlement of the Australian Agricultural Company, a straggling village called Carrington, on the western shore of the harbour. TAHLEE.