BASS'S Straits, the channel which separates New Holland from Van Diemen's Land. It is nearly fifty leagues in length from east to west, and about the same breadth from north to south. The navigation of this strait is rendered dangerous in some parts by several groups of islands, mostly barren and unproductive, which are scattered through it. Van Diemen's Land was supposed by all the earlier navigators to form a part of New Holland; until Mr Bass, a surgeon of a man-of-war, thought that there were indications of a channel. This conjecture was found to be correct; and the channel has since received his name.