ably situated for guiding a ship
to Waterhouse; the first, bears North-East 1/2 East, twelve miles from
the entrance of Port Dalrymple; the course from it to Ninth Island (which
should be passed on the outside) is North 52 degrees East, fourteen
miles; and from Ninth Island to Waterhouse, North 69 degrees East,
seventeen miles. The latter islands are very much alike in the distance,
being both rather low, with cliffy faces to the westward, and sloping
away in the opposite direction. Mount Cameron, bearing South 61 degrees
East, is also a distant guide for Waterhouse Island. The great advantage
of running for this place, instead of for an anchorage on the western
side of Flinders, is that, in the event of missing it, Banks Strait will
be open to run through; and should the Anchorage under Swan Island not be
tried, shelter will be found in about 15 fathoms under the main to the
southward.)

MR. FORSYTH.

Mr. Forsyth, in the Vansittart, had again preceded our arrival in the
river Tamar by a few days. His visit to the west coast had been attended
with considerable risk.* Still, with his usual zeal, he had not lost
sight of the important branch of the service in which he was employed,
and had made a survey of Port Davy and the coast to the South-west Cape,
which completed our chart of the south-western shores of Tasmania.

(*Footnote. Mr. Forsyth entered and examined Macquarie Harbour in his
boat, and found on an island, in the head of it, two men in a state of
starvation. These he took with him and returned to the mouth of the
harbour; but a gale of wind having set in in the meantime, the Vansittart
had sought shelter in Port Davy, lying ninety miles to the southward. Day
after day passed away without any sign of the cutter. The increase of
two, requiring much more than could be afforded, to their small party,
soon consumed their stock of provisions, sparingly dealt out; so that, to
preserve the lives of his party, Mr. Forsyth was obliged to risk a
boat-passage, in the depth of winter, and along a storm-beaten coast, to
Port Davy, which he most providentially reached in safety; though, at one
time, in spite of the precaution taken to raise the gunwale by strips of
blanket, the sea was so great that they expected each moment would be
their last.)

The coast on either side of the Tamar still remained to be surveyed, and
accordingly I undertook the examination of that to the eastward, whilst
Mr. Fitzmaurice, although even