Friday 9 September 1836

9^th Sep sailed up Investigators Strait with the
wind from the Southward. when about 14
miles from point Marsden we were board
by a boat which proved to be the
whale boat of the Duke of York whose
Captain was in her. He had come round
for vegetables which were grown in the
garden of a settler. He informed us that
the Duke of York had anchored 44 days
that the Lady Mary Pelham, the John
Pirie had also arrived as well as Col^l
Light with the Rapid. We learnt also
that Col^l Light having waited for a
a fortnight had left the Island to
proceed round the Gulph S^t Vincent
about 2 days ago.
The appearance of the land was not very
inviting as we viewed it from the Deck.
The country had a brownish green appearance
verdant green was to be seen only in one
or two small patches, all else seemed
covered with thick bushes of a bottle
green hue, with detached reddish brown
soil appearing in the intervals this reddish
brown appearance through a glass seems
to be detached large stones lying on the
surface. The whole Island seemed tolerably
high table land about 100 feet intersected
here and there by small shallow
ravines which were filled with thick
tall wood, appearing above
the brush wood tall dead trees were
scattered very thickly over every part
which seemed to have been burnt at
some former period. The waters of the
Strait were very smooth. the North
shore of Kangaroo Island very bold and
nowhere when we approached within
a mile did we find less than 13 fathoms
fine sandy bottom –