Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/343

Nuyts' Archipelago.]

vegetable soil to cover the sand and rock; and from the hot winds off the land, which we felt in Streaky and Smoky Bays, it would seem that this aridity prevails to a considerable distance in the interior. There are, however, some grounds to believe, that a lake, or run of fresh water exists not far from Denial Bay: the flock of teal seen upon the western Isle of St. Peter, and the number of winged, fresh-water insects skimming the surface of that bay, are the grounds to which I allude.

My examination of this group of islands was tolerably minute to be done wholly in a ship; but much still remained, which boats would best accomplish, to make the survey complete, especially in the bays of the main land. No more than a general examination was prescribed by my instructions at this time, and I therefore left the minute parts for a second visit, when the ship would be accompanied by the Lady Nelson tender.

Upon the identity of the particular islands composing this group, as compared with the chart of Nuyts' discovery, there may possibly be some difference of opinion, but there can be no doubt that the group, generally, is the same with that laid down by the Dutch navigator; and I therefore distinguish it from others upon this coast by the title of. Besides the nine Isles of St. Francis and two of St. Peter, and several distinct rocks and patches of reef, it contains Sinclair's four Rocks, Purdie's Isles, Lound's Isle, Lacy's and Evans' Islands, Franklin's Isles, and Olive's Island; all of which are named after young officers of the Investigator. The state of navigation in 1627, does not permit the expectation of any exact coincidence between the islands laid down by the Dutch and those in my chart; if a few leading features of resemblance be found, this is all that can be fairly required; and these I shall endeavour to trace.

The cape marked A (see the copy of the Dutch chart from Thevenot), the Point B, and the western reefs, I conceive to be clearly identified in Cape Nuyts, Point Fowler, and Nuyts' Reefs,