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Agricultural concerns at this time wore a most unpromising appearance.
The wheat proved little better than straw or chaff, and the maize was
burnt up in the ground for want of rain. From the establishment of the
settlement, so much continued drought and suffocating heat had not been
experienced. The country was now in flames; the wind northerly and
parching; and some showers of rain, which fell on the 7th, were of no
advantage, being immediately taken up again by the excessive heat of the
sun.
On the 12th, the _Norfolk_ sloop arrived, with Lieutenant Flinders
and Mr. Bass, from the examination of Van Diemen's land.
As the result of this little voyage was the complete knowledge of the
existence of a strait separating Van Diemen's land from the continent of
New Holland, it may not be improper to enter with some degree of
minuteness into the particulars of it; and the writer of these pages
feels much gratification in being enabled to do this, from the accurate
and pleasing journal of Mr.


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