It Is Pretty Certain From These Expeditions, That No River Of Any Size
Empties Itself Into The Sea, On The Northern, Western, Or Southern Coasts
Of New Holland.
Captain Flinders and the French navigators had examined all
the line of coast on the western side, except from latitude 22 deg.
To 11 deg.
south; it might therefore be supposed that the Macquarrie, after freeing
itself from the inland lake to which Lieutenant Oxley had traced it, might
fall into the sea, within these limits. This, however, is now proved not to
be the case. In the year 1818, Lieutenant King was sent by the Board of
Admiralty, to survey the unexplored coast, from the southern extremity of
Terre de Witt. He began his examination at the north-west cape, in latitude
21 deg. 45', from this to latitude 20 deg. 30', and from longitude 114 deg. to 118 deg., he
found an archipelago, which he named after Dampier, as it was originally
discovered by this navigator. Dampier had inferred, from a remarkable
current running from the coast beyond these islands, that a great strait,
or river, opened out behind them. Lieutenant King found the tide running
strong in all the passages of the archipelago, but there was no appearance
of a river; the coast was in general low, and beyond it he descried an
extensive tract of inundated marshy country, similar to that described by
Lieutenant Oxley. Cape Van Diemen, Lieutenant King ascertained to be the
northern extremity of an island, near which was a deep gulf.
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