Page:Castaway on the Auckland Isles (IA castawayonauckla01musg).pdf/139

Rh found in some of these places; but they are all open to the eastward. There appear to be no off-lying dangers along this line of coast until reaching the N.E. point, off which, in an easterly direction, lie the numerous dangerous reefs which I have so often had occasion to mention. There are two small low islands amongst them, and they extend, perhaps, ten miles from the point. There appear to be clear passages through amongst them, but they are evidently connected with the shore by a ridge of foul ground, which causes an ugly swell and strong tide-rips, and until they are properly examined are well deserving a wide berth.

As we proceeded to the northward the wind hauled to the northward also, so we kept the land on board as close as possible, intending to go into Port Ross if we could find it, as we now had a head wind (W.N.W.); and Laurie Harbour—which, I suppose, is in Port Ross—has been represented to be such a snug port, and as it lay somewhere at the extreme north end of the island we should at least have shortened our journey some thirty or thirty-five miles. Besides, I had a strong desire to see this Port Ross, Sarah's Bosom, Caroline, Rendezvous, or Laurie Harbour—for I believe they are all one and the same place; having received a different name from different persons who have visited it, in their ignorance of its proper one, which I should imagine is Laurie Harbour in Port Ross. Most likely the former was given to it by Captain Bristow, who discovered the islands in the year 1806; and in the year following left on shore in Laurie Harbour a number of pigs, which my informant remarks had, up to the year 1851, thrived remarkably well. And it no doubt received the latter from the explorer Ross, who at a subsequent period visited nearly all the islands in the Southern Ocean; and, in my humble opinion, names given by such