Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume 2Sturt, Charles
History
Two Expeditions into the Interior of Southern Australia — Volume 2
Sturt, Charles
New South Wales -- Discovery and exploration; Sturt, Charles, 1795-1869
Thirty-two days had elapsed since we had left the depot, and I
regretted in this stage of our journey, that I could not with prudence
remain an hour longer on the coast than was necessary for me to
determine the exit of the lake. From the angle of the channel on which
we were, a bright sand-hill was visible at about nine miles distance to
the E.S.E.; which, it struck me, was the eastern side of the passage
communicating with the ocean. Having failed in our attempts to proceed
further in the boat, and the appearance of the shoals at low water
having convinced me of the impracticability of it, I determined on an
excursion along the sea-shore to the southward and eastward, in anxious
hopes that it would be a short one; for as we had had a series of winds
from the S.W. which had now changed to the opposite quarter, I feared
we should have to pull across the lake in our way homewards. I left the
camp therefore at an early hour, in company with Mr. M'Leay and Fraser,
and at day-break arrived opposite to the sand-bank I have mentioned.
Between us and it the entrance into the back water ran. The passage is
at all periods of the tide rather more than a quarter of a mile in
width, and is of sufficient depth for a boat to enter, especially on
the off side; but a line of dangerous breakers in the bay will always
prevent an approach to it from the sea, except in the calmest weather,
whilst the bay itself will always be a hazardous place for any vessels
to enter under any circumstances.
Having, however, satisfactorily concluded our pursuit, we retraced our
steps to the camp, and again took the following bearings as we left the
beach, the strand trending E.S.E. 1/2 E.:--
Kangaroo Island, S.E. angle S. 60 degrees W.
Low rocky point of Cape Jervis S. 81 degrees W.
Round Hill in centre of Range S. 164 degrees W.
Camp, distant one mile S. 171 degrees W.
Mount Lofty, distant forty miles N. 9 degrees E.
Before setting sail, a bottle was deposited between four and five feet
deep in a mound of soft earth and shells, close to the spot on which
the tent had stood, which contained a paper of the names of the party,
together with a simple detail of our arrival and departure.
It appeared that the good fortune, which had hitherto attended us was
still to continue, for the wind which had been contrary, chopped round
to the S.W., and ere sunset we were again in the mouth of the river,
having run from fifty to sixty miles under as much canvass as the boat
would bear, and with a heavy swell during the greater part of the day.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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