Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/393

Spencer's Gulph.]

rocks. The southernmost cliff bore at noon E. 4½° S. six or seven miles, and beyond it there was no main coast visible; but three small islands, with several rocks and a reef, were seen to lie as far as five miles to the southward, out from the cape.

Although the continuation of the main coast was not to be distinguished beyond the cape, yet there was land in sight at the distance of seven or eight leagues, from about south to S. 18½° W. Whether this land were an island, or a part of the continent, and the wide opening to the eastward a strait, or a new inlet, was uncertain; but in either case, the investigation of the gulph was terminated; and in honour of the respectable nobleman who presided at the Board of Admiralty when the voyage was planned and ship put into commission, I named it. The cliffy-pointed cape which forms the east side of the entrance, and lies in 35° 18′ south and 136° 55′ east, was named Cape Spencer; and the three isles lying off it, with their rocks, Althorpe Isles.

A line drawn from the nearest part of Cape Catastrophe to Cape Spencer will be forty-eight miles long, and so much is the entrance of the gulph in width. Gambier's Isles lie not far from the middle of the line; and if we measure upward from them, the gulph will be found, without regard to the small windings, to extend one hundred and eighty-five miles into the interior of the country. For the general exactness of its form in the chart, I can answer with tolerable confidence; having seen all that is laid down, and, as usual, taken every angle which enters into the construction. Throughout the whole extent of the shores the water line was almost every where distinguished; the only exceptions being, small portions at the head of Hardwicke and Louth Bays, of a bight near Point Lowly, and of the low land at the back of the great Eastern Shoal.

At noon, when off Cape Spencer, the wind became variable and light, with very hazy, cloudy weather; and the mercury in my marine barometer had fallen two tenths of an inch. At six in the evening a breeze sprung up at west-north-west; and as I expected a