Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 2.djvu/200

 peffeet sterility. The oast is  wi barrier of rocks, on which the sea w breaking high, with a roar that wm heal on board, although. our distance from the shore was gt least three miles. The warmth of the weather now began a- pidly to increase; the thermometer at. tmon ranged as high as 79 � At one o'clock Cape Inscription the nqth- westernmost point of Dirk Hartog's Island, distinguished, and the sea-breeze veered as far as S.W.b.W. wch was two points more westerly than we had hitherto had it. At two o'clock the brig passed .round. the cape, and, as there was .an appearance of good shelter in the bay to the eaztward of it, we hauled in, and at half past three o'clock, anchored* in twelve fathoms. fine gravelly soft sand; .the west point of Dirk Hartog's Island (Cape Inscription) bearing N. 82 � and the low sandy point that forms its north-east end S. 53 �'at a mile and a half from the shore. As we hauled round the cape, and were pass, ing under the lee of the land, the breeze became so suddenly heated, by its blowing over the arid and pa,l. s .urlkce of the coast, that 'my sea- weed hygrometer, which had been quite damp since we left Rottne9t land, was in ten minutes N2

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