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Discoveries in Australia, Volume 2 - Discoveries in Australia; with an Account of the Coasts and Rivers - Explored and Surveyed During the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, in The - Years 1837-38-39-40-41-42-43. By Command of the Lords Commissioners - Of the Admir by John Lort Stokes
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specimens of humanity upon the face of the earth.

There was little to interest us in our examination of this inlet,
especially as the Dutch had probably visited it some two hundred years
before; thus destroying the principal charm it would have possessed,
namely, that of novelty. We inferred this from there being an opening
laid down in this neighbourhood by them as Van Diemen's River. I, in
consequence, continued the name, altering river to inlet; though,
probably, at times, it may deserve the appellation of a river, as after
heavy falls of rain it must contain fresh water. Our finding the water
only brackish near the head favours this supposition.

The habitations of the natives were of a more substantial kind than we
should have expected to meet with in these latitudes, being snug
oval-shaped huts, thatched with coarse grass. The extremely low level
nature of the country, the reader can imagine, as also how much it
surprised us to find that from the boat at high-water our eyes could
wander over miles. Occasionally on the plains, rendered warm from their
colour reflecting the powerful beams of the sun, were to be seen whirling
clouds of dust, towering upwards until their centrifugal force became
exhausted. The temperature, however, was lower about four in the morning
than we had noticed it since leaving Sydney, being only 65 degrees, when
easterly or land winds prevailed; those in the afternoon were generally
from seaward.

A slight rise, even of ten feet, in the water beyond the tidal change,
must overflow a vast portion of such very low country; many evidences of
this having taken place were observed.*

(*Footnote. At the entrance of Van Diemen's Inlet it is high-water on the
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