Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 2.djvu/168

160 Our progress next morning was very little, until the sea breeze set in; and we were then obliged, from the more northern trending of the coast, to keep up to the wind. The soundings varied between 6 and 3 fathoms; and at five in the evening diminished rather suddenly to 2½, on a rocky bottom, two or three miles from the land. We then tacked, and worked to windward till dark, when the anchor was dropped in 4½ fathoms upon rocky ground covered with mud; but as there was little wind and no sea, the anchor held. The observed latitude here, from the moon, was 16° 28′, and longitude by time keeper 138° 6½′ east.

During the night, the wind came as usual off the land; and in the morning we lay up N. by W., nearly parallel to the then direction of the coast. At ten, the sea breeze set in at N. by W.; and from that time until evening we worked to windward, tacking from the shore when the depth diminished to 2½ fathoms, and stretching in again when it increased to 6; the distances from the land being in miles, as nearly as might be what the depth was in fathoms, a coincidence which had been observed in some parts on the east side of the Gulph. At sunset, a hillock upon a projecting point bore N. 73° W. four miles, and behind it was a small opening which answered in situation to the River Van Alphen of the old chart; our last tack was then made from the shore; and at dusk we anchored in 4 fathoms, coarse sand and gravel. Variation from amplitude, with the head W. by N., 4° 45′, or corrected to the meridian, 2° 38′ east, nearly as on the 8th.

At daylight, we steered northward with a land wind; and when the sea breeze came, stretched W.S.W. towards the shore. At noon,