Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/435

Bass' Strait.]

afterwards learned, one or more passages between the reefs, and another between them and the island.

At three in the afternoon the northern land was in sight, and the highest hills of King's Island were sinking below the horizon, as seen from the deck. Their distance was twenty-five miles; and consequently the elevation of them is between four and five hundred feet above the level of the sea. At five o'clock, a bluff head, the most projecting part of the northern land, was distant three or four leagues; it was Captain Grant's

We then hauled to the wind, and stood off and on; at daylight bore away for the land with a moderate breeze from the southward; and at eight o'clock, when Cape Otway bore N. 69° W. ten miles, we steered north-eastward along the shore. On the west side of Cape Otway the coast falls back somewhat to the north, and projects again at the distance of ten or eleven miles; where it is not, as I think, more than three leagues to the east of the headland seen under the lee at eight in the evening of the 20th. From Cape Otway, eastward, the shore trends east-north-east about three leagues, to a projection called Cape Patton, and according to Captain Grant, a bay is formed between them; but at three leagues off, nothing worthy of being called a bay could be perceived. Beyond Cape Patton the coast took a more northern direction, to a point with a flat-topped hill upon it, and further than this it was not visible.

The whole of this land is high, the elevation of the uppermost parts being not less than two thousand feet. The rising hills were covered with wood of a deep green foliage, and without any vacant