shows the form of the mount, and of the
granitic ridge.]

The mount upon which I stood is the highest part of a ridge of almost
bare granite, extending along, or rather forming the west side of Middle
Island. The other parts of the island are low, and thickly covered with
brush wood and some trees, where a small species of kangaroo seemed to be
numerous, though none were caught. In the north-eastern part was a small
lake of a rose colour, the water of which, as I was informed by Mr.
Thistle who visited it, was so saturated with salt that sufficient
quantities were crystallised near the shores to load a ship. The specimen
he brought on board was of a good quality, and required no other process
than drying to be fit for use. This lake is at the back of the
easternmost of three small beaches on the north side of the island, and
it might be concluded that the salt was formed by the evaporation of the
water oozing through the bank which separates it from the sea; but as, in
the small drainings from the hills, the water was too salt to be
drinkable, this may admit of a doubt.

SATURDAY 16 JANUARY 1802

On Saturday morning a part of the people were employed cutting a boat
load of fire wood, and the master was again sent to sound the passage out
to the eastward, and amongst the rocks lying beyond it. The shallowest
depth he found was 3 fathoms, after which the water deepened to 7 and 10,
past the north-east point and out to sea. He landed upon some of the
rocky islets, and brought from thence twenty-seven more geese, some of
them alive. The botanical gentlemen employed the day in going round
Middle Island, but they found very little to reward their labour. A piece
of fir plank, with nails in it, which seemed to have been part of a
ship's deck, was picked up on the shore; but no trace of the island
having been visited, either by Europeans or the natives of the main land,
was any where seen.

The basis stone of this, as it appears to be of all the islands as well
as of the coast of the archipelago, is granitic; but at the south side of
Middle Island there is a thick crust of calcareous rock over it, as there
is at the south end of Goose Island. It was also on the south side of
King George's Sound that the calcareous rock covered the granite; a
coincidence which may perhaps afford some light to the geologist.

The _latitude_ of Goose Island Bay, for so this anchorage was named, is
34 deg. 5' 23" south, and _longitude_ by the