ing ascertained that _Snug Cove_, on its
north-west side, afforded shelter for shipping, he steered northward, and
passed Mount Dromedary soon after midnight. At noon, Feb. 16, Mr. Bass
landed upon a small island lying under the shore to the south-east of the
Pigeon House, to examine a pole which he had before observed, and
supposed might have been set up as a signal by shipwrecked people; but it
proved to be nothing more than the dead stump of a tree, much taller and
more straight than the others. He sailed next morning; but the wind hung
so much in the north and east quarters that he was forced successively
into Jervis Bay, Shoals Haven, and Port Hacking; and it was not until the
24th at night, that our adventurous discoverer terminated his dangerous
and fatiguing voyage, by entering within the heads of Port Jackson.

[* The true latitude of the mouth of Two-fold Bay is 37 deg. 5', showing an
error of 12' to the north, nearly similar to what has been specified in
the observations near Wilson's Promontory.]

It should be remembered, that Mr. Bass sailed with only six weeks
provisions; but with the assistance of occasional supplies of petrels,
fish, seal's flesh, and a few geese and black swans, and by abstinence,
he had been enabled to prolong his voyage beyond _eleven_ weeks. His
ardour and perseverance were crowned, in despite of the foul winds which
so much opposed him, with a degree of success not to have been
anticipated from such feeble means. In three hundred miles of coast, from
Port Jackson to the Ram Head, he added a number of particulars which had
escaped captain Cook; and will always escape any navigator in a first
discovery, unless he have the time and means of joining a close
examination by boats, to what may be seen from the ship.

Our previous knowledge of the coast scarcely extended beyond the Ram
Head; and there began the harvest in which Mr. Bass was ambitious to
place the first reaping hook. The new coast was traced three hundred
miles; and instead of trending southward to join itself to Van Diemen's
Land, as captain Furneaux had supposed, he found it, beyond a certain
point, to take a direction nearly opposite, and to assume the appearance
of being exposed to the buffetings of an open sea. Mr. Bass, himself,
entertained no doubt of the existence of a wide strait, separating Van
Diemen's Land from New South Wales; and he yielded with the greatest
reluctance to the necessity of returning, before it