Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 1.djvu/347

 COASTS op AUSTRALIA. '2 ' be trusted with safety on so bad a bottom,) as too great to run any longer risk, and we left the .se. ,g. place, with a much stronger impression of its value and importance, than we entertained after the examination of an opening that was disco. vered by us a few days afterwards. At daylight, the land about Point Pearce (a is. sugar-loaf hill on the Goodwin Eange) bore nearly due east. At eight a.m., having stood to .the S.S.W. for thirteen miles, the water changed colour; the depth, however, still continuedto be re- gular in twelve fathoms, and we steered on; soon afterwards it shoaled to seven and five fathoms, upon which the helm was put up; but before the vessels' head was got round, we were in three fathoms, with the swell of the sea breaking so heavily around us, that our escape for the fourth time on this shoal was quite providential After getting into clear water, we ran along the edge of the coloured water, sounding in fourteen fa- thoms hard sand, mixed with shells and stones; at noon we hauled round its north-west ex- ffemity, and steered for the land, which was soon afterwards visible from south to south-west,' the latter bearing being that of a remarkable hill, of quadrilateral shape, answering in position to Captain Baudin's Lacrosse Island. At two o'clock our soundings, for the first time Since