Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/387

Spencer's Gulph.]

an hour, we again made sail downward, in soundings from 5 to 10 fathoms, near the edge of the shoal. The depth was then 7 fathoms; but there were banks a-head, extending to a great distance from the eastern shore, and in steering westward to pass round them, we had 3½ fathoms for the least water. It afterwards deepened to 7, and we again steered southward, but were not able to get near the land; on the contrary, the shallow water forced us further off as we proceeded. The wind was at west-south-west in the evening; and this not permitting us to lie along the edge of the bank, we came to an anchor in 7 fathoms, soft bottom; being then above four leagues from the eastern low shore, although there was only 3½ fathoms at less than a mile nearer in. In the morning we followed the line of the great eastern shoal, and its direction permitted us to approach nearer to the land, with soundings between 8 and 4 fathoms. A little before noon, after running half an hour in less than 4 fathoms and getting within about six miles of the land, we were obliged to tack and stretch off, the wind having veered to south-west. Our situation twenty minutes afterward, was in We beat to windward all the afternoon, and at sunset anchored in 3½ fathoms, near the edge of the great bank and seven or eight miles from the land. The shore was low and sandy, but there was a ridge of hills behind it nearly similar to that on the west side of