But the prescribed period of absence having expired, and the provisions being nearly exhausted, it was necessary to make as much haste as possible.

On January 8th the Babel Isles were marked down, and named "because of the confusion of noises made by the geese, shags, penguins, gulls, and sooty petrels." Anyone who has camped near a rookery of sooty petrels is aware that they are quite capable of maintaining a sufficiently "babelish confusion"-- the phrase is Camden's--without any aid from other fowls.
A little later in the month (January 12) the Norfolk sailed into harbour, and was anchored alongside the Reliance.

"To the strait which had been the great object of research," wrote Flinders, "and whose discovery was now completed, Governor Hunter gave at my recommendation the name of Bass Strait.

This was no more than a just tribute to my worthy friend and companion for the extreme dangers and fatigues he had undergone in first entering it in the whaleboat, and to the correct judgment he had formed, from various indications, of the existence of a wide opening between Van Diemen's Land and New South Wales." Throughout this voyage we find Bass expending his abundant energies in the making of inland excursions whenever an opportunity occurred.

To take a boat up rivers, to cut through rough country, to climb, examine soil, make notes on birds and beasts, and exercise his enquiring mind in all directions, was his constant delight.
The profusion of wild life upon the coasts and islands explored during the voyage astonished the travellers.