We proceeded this morning in the direction of Point Swan, and remarked, as we approached it, the heavy tide-race which used Captain King so roughly, and which subsequent surveying operations enabled us to account for, from great irregularity in the bottom, changing almost at once from 40 to 17 fathoms. We waited, having no wish to experience the full effect of the current, for slack water, and thus passed round it quietly enough; we anchored in a small bight, South 20 degrees West 1 1/2 miles from Point Swan, in seven fathoms, which, as we rightly conjectured, would leave us in three, at low-water.* (*Footnote. The following is Captain King's graphic account of his encounter with this race: "On my way towards Point Swan, we saw from the masthead a line of strong tide ripplings, extending from the Point in a North-West by West direction, within which we at first attempted to pass; but finding they were connected to the Point, hauled up to steer through them where they seemed to be the least dangerous. As we approached, the noise was terrific; and although we were not more than two minutes amongst the breakers, yet the shocks of the sea were so violent, as to make us fearful for the safety of our masts. A smaller vessel would perhaps have been swamped; for although the sea was in other parts quite smooth, and the wind light, yet the water broke over the bows, and strained the brig considerably.") As we had now arrived at the point from which we anticipated carrying on our most important operations, it became of paramount interest to know whether we could rely for that indispensable article, fresh water, upon the resources of the wild and barbarous shores. The vast extent of country; the delightful verdure which clothed great portions of it; nay, even the evidences of a people living upon its shores, would, under any other circumstances, and on any other coast, have been deemed conclusively to decide this point in the affirmative: but the voyager knows, from the best authority, that upon the coasts, and within the heart of Australia, nature seems to delight in contradiction, and that she is more than usually capricious with respect to the supply of what is ordinarily her most common, as it is ever one of her most precious gifts. A few wretched mud-holes might serve for a time to content the savages trained to privation from their earliest infancy, but for ourselves it was clear, either that a reasonable supply of fresh water must be found here, or we must not calculate upon remaining beyond the time which would leave us sufficient to proceed to Hanover Bay, where this most needful commodity was, upon the authority of Captain King, to be found. SEARCH FOR WATER.