T h e monument consisted of a painted board, supported from a base by two columns of Gothic ^.design. T h e inscription was done in elevated metal letters pegged into wood, and the whole was pronounced to be a specimen of neat workmanship, and creditable to Langland's Foundry, where the symbols were prepared. As a curious sequel to the great calamity, it m a y be mentioned that Solomon Brown, the sole saved immigrant, was found dead some three years afterwards in a bush creek a few miles from town, with only a couple of feet of water in it—a strange exemplification of the aphorism that a m a n born to be drowned will not be hanged. A correspondent, w h o does not send his name, has obligingly placed m e in possession of the following :—" T h e chief officer of the ship, Mr. Guthrie, the only officer w h o was saved, came out to the colonies a year or two later as captain of the brig 'Tigress,' of Leith, which vessel went ashore off Onkaparinga, on the South Australian Coast. T h e captain, trusting to his great powers as a swimmer, endeavoured to take a line ashore, and was drowned in the attempt, his life being the only one lost in connection with the wreck. I write entirely from memory and subject to correction, but I believe that the above statement is right." Mr. H . Taechell, of Inglewood, gives the following version :—Relative to the drowning of the first mate of the above vessel (then captain of the 'Tigress' brig, on the Onkaparinga Beach, S A.), I wish to correct your correspondent. H e says the captain's was the only life lost, whereas there were two—the captain and a passenger, a Mr. Frew—both of w h o m declined to enter the volunteer's boat that pushed off to save the crew (of which I was one). ' In the night the vessel broke up, and after a day or two some portions of their bodies were washed ashore. I must apologize for troubling you, but your correspondent used the words ' subject to correction,' and this is given in good part." Loss
OF THE "THETIS."
In the month of May, 1848, the schooner "Thetis," 95 tons, was proceeding from Sydney to Melbourne, and on the ioth was forced by stress of weather to run into Twofold Bay. She left after a few days, and was compelled to fight every inch of the way against wind and wave until late on in the evening of the 26th, when she reached Port Phillip Heads. It was pitch dark, and in passing Point Lonsdale she struck on a reef, and thrown on her beam ends, her masts falling over on the rocks. T h e seas tumbled over the deck, drenching the twenty-four persons, of w h o m the crew and passengers consisted, w h o were in a state of much alarm. It was blowing very hard and the two children of a Mr. M'Carthy were swept away almost out of the arms of their parents, w h o had as m u c h as they could do to save themselves by clinging to one of the masts. T h e captain, as a possible means of safety, caused the passengers (fifteen) to creep along the spars and drop from the fallen topmast to the head of the reef which was bare, within a few yards of the vessel. They did so and- were all saved including the Mr. and Mrs. M'Carthy already referred to. These people when they got on to the rocks grew very faint from cold and exposure, and dropped down to all appearance dead. Mr. M'Carthy's brother, also a passenger, was saved, but his brother and sister-in-law died. T h e sea having fallen, by means of the dingy all the survivors were removed to a higher part of the reef, and after m u c h suffering they next day reached the pilot station where their immediate wants were attended to, and they were forwarded per the cutter " William" to Melbourne. T h e " Thetis" was a newly-built Sydney craft, worth some ,£2000, and not insured. She was totally wrecked, and the cause was supposed to be a defect in the compass, which, under the circumstances, is very questionable. WRECK OF THE "SOPHIA."
A few days after intelligence was received of another wreck on the same reef upon which the " Thetis" was cast, and it now began to be believed that the two accidents proceeded from the same cause—the injudicious site of the lighthouse. In this case it was the "Sophia" from
