Page:Rambles on the Golden Coast of New Zealand.djvu/53

Rh presented its uninviting array of rocks awash, and although a channel exists between it and the shore, known by the suggestive name of Break-adrift Channel, we, on this occasion, passed outside of the reef, and, making a sharp turn to starboard, went between it and Table Rock—what I may, at least this time, be allowed to call a solitary sentinel, with just the crown of his hat above water. By this time the white cliffs of Chalky Island were shining brightly under the rays of the early morning sun. It was originally the intention to have explored the two branches of Chalky Inlet—Edwardson and Cunaris Sounds, and to have examined those localities on the shores of Chalky Island and the mainland where traces of wreck had been found by the coal prospectors, and their friend the botanist, in the course of their adventurous boating excursion to the North; but fearing from the appearances, that we were to have more than a breeze from the N.W., it was thought better to leave this Inlet, and its relics of wreck, for examination on our return trip, and to get beyond West Cape, before its characteristic weather had attained full force.

The relics of wreck found on the beach were a cannon, a ship’s figure-head, and a small hatch. The cannon had been found on the shore near Cape Providence, and in our excited imaginations we propounded endless theories as to how it came there, but a distressingly unromantic solution was found to the problem. It is, no doubt, the gun which was conveyed there, about two years ago, for the purpose of making signals, when the steamer “Star of the South” had to be beached after striking a rock, as she was running back to the shelter of the Sound. To the figure-head and the hatch, which lie on Chalky Island, much more interest attaches. What may have been the exact fate of the vessel to which they have belonged it would be hard to tell, but it is just possible that, caught in a gale upon the coast, she had been seeking the shelter of the Inlet at a time when its other name—Dark Cloud Inlet—would more appropriately describe it, and struck upon the reef lying off, in her instance, the ironically-named Cape Providence. A vessel striking there, stem on, might leave little more than her head-gear to drift ashore. I hazarded the opinion that the Balleny Reef was more probably the scene of the wreck, if there was any, but, in that case, the drift would have gone elsewhere with the current, which sets to the southward along the shore. The figure-head was, of course, weather and water-worn; but some of the gilding and paint still remained. It was the figure of a sailor, in white trousers and blue jacket, with gilt buttons—the figure itself being 6 ft. long, and the scroll to which it was attached 2½ ft. in length. The face and arms had been rubbed off; and it is not improbable that there had been also the representation of a hat, for such a thing was picked up by Dr Hector during his visit to the coast. We were not sufficiently “posted” as to dates; but it is suggested that such may have been the figure-head of the American ship “Jack Frost.” I am liable to correction; but I believe that that vessel left the Bluff one Sunday evening, in the latter half of 1861; that, on the following day, there was a heavy gale; and that she was never heard of more. The hatch is a small one—about two feet square, and mounted with brass; and, from that particular, it is judged to be the hatch of some ship’s lazarette.