Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/34

20 being applied, was quite lost in the reflection that the people themselves were of the most immoral and profligate character, and generally either runaway convicts or fugitives from society, on account of crimes they had committed, and by this kind of labour earned a sufficiency to gratify their habits of drunkenness and debauchery. Whilst lying at anchor off the mouth of the Huon, in the middle of a rather dark night, we narrowly escaped being run down by a vessel coming up the channel before a strong southerly wind; they had no one on deck except the man at the helm, but, by the vigilance of a dog, which was evidently on the look-out, and which barked most violently, directly he saw us the man altered the course of the vessel, just in time to avoid a serious collision, which we had no means of averting.

In the great cove on the right hand, about five or six miles from the entrance of Entrecasteaux Channel, there is very good anchorage at its head. You may go close in to the sandy beach, from whence a road leads up to the light-house on Bruni Head, an object of no small interest in this country, and one, as I have before remarked, of considerable advantage to the commerce of the capital. Vessels that enter the channel late at night generally anchor under the shelter of Partridge Island, which lies off the south point of the great cove, with the island bearing about N.W., so as to afford protection from the heavy breezes which blow from that quarter. You may anchor in perfect safety in ten fathoms water, on a good holding ground. Between