operating on the mind of Captain Flinders, and tending greatly to indispose him from viewing with a careful eye the peculiarities of the locality. When there, he lost Mr. Thistle and a boat's crew in some tide ripplings, at a point which he therefore called Cape Catastrophe; and he was in no slight apprehension of being seriously inconvenienced by a want of fresh water. These occurrences produced in him the oppressed state of mind which is evident by the want of spirit in the style in which that part of his book is written. Another cause of the discrepancy may be the fact of the whole of the large inlet between Cape Donnington and Point Boston being called Port Lincoln, nearly half of which Captain Flinders did not minutely examine. The account of M. Peron may refer, and that of Captain Goold does refer to Boston Bay, into which Flinders did not sail. Spalding Cove also was not examined by Captain Flinders, which is much to be regretted, since subsequent statements render it probable that be would have found there what he so much required, viz., fresh water; and in that case his survey of Port Lincoln and its neighbourhood might have been more complete.
The most recent account of Spalding Cove is given by a person of the name of Hamborg, who visited it in May, 1832. He states that he anchored on the eastern side of the Cove, in blue clay, in seven fathoms water, and that the position is safe from all winds, being nearly land-locked. He went about a mile and a half inland, and found two streams of fine water, as clear as crystal, running into Spalding Cove from the southward. This person has travelled much in Van Diemen's Land, and Australia generally, and is of opinion that the appearance of the country resembles Port Augusta rather than any other part he has seen. Amongst the trees he saw were cedar (which would cut into two-feet plank;) beef-wood, tulip-wood, stringy bark (very large), huon pine and iron bark. He saw plenty of wood which would
