ut five feet long,
that had evidently been cut at its extremities by a sharp-edged tool,
probably by the Malays. Whatever the inhabitant of this nest might have
been it was doubtless a bird of considerable size and power to have
transported a stick of such a length.

September 8.

The next morning after Mr. Roe had sounded the strait that separates
Kater's Island from the main we got underweigh and passed through it; and
then rounding a high island named after Dr. W.H. Wollaston, we steered to
the westward through a group of islets which were too numerous to be
correctly placed in a running survey. To the westward of Wollaston Island
is a deep bay which, from the broken appearance of the coast at the back,
there is some reason to think may prove the embouchure of a small
rivulet; but as it was not of sufficient importance to cause delay it was
passed with the appellation of Mudge Bay. In the evening we anchored off
an island named on account of the peculiar shape of a rock near the beach
Capstan Island; and as it wanted yet an hour to sunset we landed and
ascended the summit which, from its very rugged ascent, was no easy task.
A view however from this elevated station, and an amplitude of the
setting sun, repaid me for my trouble; and Mr. Cunningham increased his
collection by the addition of some interesting plants and a few papers of
seeds.

The distance that the French expedition kept from this part of the coast,
of which M. De Freycinet so often and so justly complains, prevented it
from ascertaining the detail of its shores: in fact very few parts of it
were seen at all. Commodore Baudin's Cape Chateaurenaud must be some low
island which we did not see, unless it was the outermost of our Prudhoe
Islands.

Montagu Sound is bounded on the west by an island of considerable size
which was named in compliment to John Thomas Bigge, Esquire, his
Majesty's late Commissioner of Inquiry into the state of the colony of
New South Wales. Bigge Island is separated from the main by a strait
named after the Reverend Thomas Hobbes Scott, now Archdeacon of New South
Wales, formerly Secretary to the above commission.

September 9.

The next morning we steered through Scott's Strait but not without
running much risk on account of the muddy state of the water, and from
the rocky nature of its channel. It was however passed without accident;
but as the tide prevented our doubling Cape Pond the anchor was dropped,
and the evenin