Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/348

122 and we had the satisfaction, at daylight, to find the ship had gained considerably. It then blew a strong breeze at south-west-by-south, and we stretched in under Waldegrave's Isles; and finding the water become smooth, the anchor was let go in 7 fathoms, on a bottom of calcareous sand, at half a mile from the north-east end of the inner and largest island. We were here sheltered from the present wind, but exposed from west-by-south to north-north-west; the master was therefore immediately sent to sound the opening of one mile wide between the island and the main, by which alone we could hope to escape, should the wind shift to the north-westward and blow strong; but the opening proved to be full of rocks and breakers.

The press of sail carried in the night had so much stretched the rigging, that it required to be set up, fore and aft. Whilst this was doing on board, the naturalists landed upon the island; where I also went to take bearings with a theodolite, and observations for the latitude and longitude. The island is about two miles long, and connected by rocks with the small, outer isle; and they extend four or five miles from a projecting part of the main, in a west direction. These islands form the southern boundary, as Cape Radstock does the north point of a great open bay, which, from the night we passed in it, obtained the name of.

I found the island to bear a great resemblance to the western Isle of St. Peter, in its cliffy shores, granitic basis, and super-stratum of calcareous stone; in its vegetable productions, and in its surface being much excavated by the burrows of the sooty petrel. It had also been frequented by geese at some preceding season of the year, and there were marks of its having been a breeding place for them; but at this time, the vegetation was too much dried up to afford any subsistence. Crows of a shining, black colour were numerous; and in two which I shot, the bill was surrounded at the base with small feathers, extending one-fourth of the length towards the extremity. There were no appearances of the island having been before visited