18
ENTERCASTEAUX CHANNEL.
[Chap. I.
1841
the eastern cape of the inlet, called Bruni Head, which from its elevated position may be seen at a great distance, and is a sure mark by which the Actæon Reef may be avoided. There is no other danger after passing Muscle Bay: in the channel the soundings are regular, and the shores bold, as far as the entrance of the Huon river; from this point a mud bank lies off the west shore of the channel, but its limits are well defined by buoys, placed at small distances apart; these are to be left on the port hand in running up to the Derwent. Recherche Bay is not a commodious harbour for ships drawing more than seventeen feet water, and is too exposed for purposes of general refitment. Muscle Bay and Esperance Bay are better adapted for that purpose, when it may not be necessary to procure materials or assistance from Hobarton. From the hill where Mount Royal signal station once stood, the pilot informed me that the Pedro Blanco, or Eddystone rock, could be seen over part of Bruni Island, distant about thirty miles; the weather was too unfavourable when we were off this point, or we would have ascended the hill, to get angles for the survey. The shores of the inlet are extremely beautiful—their picturesque and broken outline, and the luxuriance of the vegetation, whose dingy green colour we had now become so accustomed to, as almost to have forgotten the rich and varied verdure of our own forests, impressed the mind with feelings of regret that so charming a country should remain a useless
