Our gentlemen described the country to be as destitute of soil as we had found it lower down; and so rugged as to be scarcely passable. The ravine is formed by precipitous rocks of sandstone rising perpendicularly on both sides to the height of two hundred feet, here and there lightly sprinkled with a few shrubs which had lately been burnt.
Some of our party thought they saw both an emu and a black swan amongst the bushes on the banks of the river. In some parts of the north coast we have certainly noticed marks on the sand like the impressions of an emu's foot, but as we have never seen the bird it is probable that we have mistaken them for the traces of the Ardea antigone. Black swans we have never seen at all within the tropic and it is equally likely that in this instance we may have also been deceived by the appearance of a bird of similar size and plumage. On the return of the boat two alligators swam past it.
September 19.
After completing our water we left the river; but owing to light winds did not succeed in getting out of the harbour until the following morning. Its examination had been performed as narrowly as time and circumstances admitted: it is of considerable size and in most parts offers good and secure anchorage; with abundance of wood for fuel and perhaps always water of good quality. Its western side was very indistinctly seen; and it was thought probable from appearances that, in the space between Cape Pond and Anderdon Islands, there are perhaps two or three small mountain streams.
The harbour was called Prince Frederic's, and the sound that fronts it York Sound, in honour of his Royal Highness the Duke of York.
September 20.
After passing Point Hardy we entered a fine harbour bounded on the west by a group of islands, and on the east by the projection of land that forms the western side of Prince Frederic's Harbour. The flood-tide was not sufficient to carry us to the bottom so that we anchored off the east end of the southernmost island of the group; which on the occasion of the anniversary of the late king's coronation was subsequently called the Coronation Islands. The harbour was called Port Nelson, and a high rocky hill that was distinguished over the land to the southward received the name of Mount Trafalgar.
Notwithstanding we had constantly experienced since the period of our leaving the east coast both fine weather and smooth water, yet the leaky state of the vessel had been gradually increasing; leading me to fear that the injury received at Port Bowen had been much more serious than we had then contemplated. Having the advantage of smooth water and a fair wind during our passage up the east coast, the damage had not shown itself until we reached Cairncross Island: after this it was occasionally observed, but with more or less effect according to the strength and the direction of the wind and the state of the sea. At the anchorage off Booby Island, being exposed to a swell, she made four inches of water in an hour; but during the examination of Montagu Sound and the harbour we last left it did not show at all: upon leaving Hunter's River and working against a fresh sea-breeze, the leak gained more than three inches in the hour; and in passing round Cape Torrens, the vessel being pressed down in the water from the freshness of the sea-breeze, it gained as much as nine inches in one hour and twenty minutes.
From the alarming increase of the leak it became absolutely necessary to ascertain the full extent of the damage, in order that we might, if possible, repair it, so as not to prevent the further prosecution of the voyage, or at least to ensure our return to Port Jackson.
We were fortunately upon a part of the coast where the tides had a sufficient rise and fall to enable us to lay her on shore without difficulty; but the beaches in York Sound and Prince Frederic's Harbour were all too steep for the purpose.