He had been obliged to fight his way up the cliffs of the
islands with the seals, and when arrived at the top, to make a road with
his clubs amongst the albatrosses. These birds were sitting upon their
nests, and almost covered the surface of the ground, nor did they any
otherwise derange themselves for the new visitors, than to peck at their
legs as they passed by. This species of albatross is white on the neck
and breast, partly brown on the back and wings, and its size is less
than many others met with in that sea, particularly in the high southern
latitudes. The seals were of the usual size, and bore a reddish fur,
much inferior in quality to that of the seals at Furneaux's Islands.

Albatross Island, for so it was named, is near two miles in length, and
sufficiently high to be seen five or six leagues from a ship's deck: its
shores are mostly steep cliffs.

The north-west cape of Van Diemen's Land, or island as it might now be
termed, is a steep black head, which, from its appearance, I call Cape
Grim. It lies nearly due south, four miles from the centre of Trefoil,
in latitude 40 deg. 44'; the longtitude will be 144 deg. 43' East, according to
the position of Albatross Island made in the _Investigator_. There are
two rocks close to Cape Grim, of the same description with itself. On
the north side of the Cape the shore is a low sandy beach, and trends
north-eastward three or four miles; but whether there be sufficient
depth for ships to pass between it and Barren Island, has not, I
believe, been yet ascertained. To the south of the Cape the black cliffs
extend seven or eight miles, when the shore falls back eastward to a
sandy bay of which little could be perceived.

1799. To the strait which had been the great object of research, and
whose discovery was now completed, Governor Hunter gave, at my
recommendation, the name of Bass Strait. This was no more than a just
tribute to my worthy friend and companion, for the extreme dangers and
fatigues he had undergone in first entering it in the whale-boat, and to
the correct judgment he had formed from various indications, of the
existence of a wide opening between Van Diemen's Land and New South
Wales.

THE _INVESTIGATOR_

+Source.+--Voyage to Terra Australis (Matthew Flinders, 1814), pp.
36-37, 60-61, 211-220, 229-231

In recognition of his services Captain Flinders was given command
of the _Investigator_ in which to prosecute the exploration of