Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2.djvu/10

6

entering Glass-house Bay I had then hauled close round Cape Moreton at dusk in the evening, and in coming out had passed too far westward to observe it. The longitude of Cape Moreton was now fixed by the time keepers at 153° 26½′ east, differing only 1½′ from the lunar observations before taken in the Norfolk; when its latitude had been settled at 27° 0½′ south.

After passing the dangerous reef, we steered northward until three in the morning; and then hove to until daylight, for the purpose of examining the land about Double-island Point and Wide Bay, which did not appear to have been well distinguished by captain Cook. At seven o'clock the point bore N. 2° W., six leagues, and the shore abreast, a beach with sandy hills behind it, was distant six miles. Between the S. 63° W. and a low bluff head bearing S. 32° W., was a bight in the coast where the sand hills seemed to terminate; for the back land further south was high and rocky with small peaks on the top, similar to the ridge behind the Glass Houses, of which it is probably a continuation.

At half past nine we hauled close round Double-island Point, within a rock lying between one and two miles to the N.N.E., having 7 fathoms for the least water. The point answered captain Cook's description: it is a steep head, at the extremity of a neck of land which runs out two miles from the main, and lies in 25° 56′ south, and 153° 13′ east. On the north side of the point the coast falls back to the westward, and presents a steep shore of white sand; but in curving round Wide Bay the sandy land becomes very low, and a small opening was seen in it, leading to a piece of water like a lagoon; but the shoals which lie off the entrance render it difficult of access, if indeed there be a passage for any thing larger than boats. Had the Lady Nelson been with me, I should have attempted to get her into the lagoon, having previously entertained a conjecture that the head of Hervey's Bay might communicate with Wide Bay; but the apprehension that lieutenant Murray would arrive at the