Page:Voyage in search of La Perouse, volume 2 (Stockdale).djvu/118

92 from the longitude observed in Ship Cove, and the distance run along the coast by Captain Cook: and it must be remembered, that this celebrated navigator had no time-keeper on board during his first voyage, an instrument indispensably necessary to ascertain with precision the distance run upon a coast, where the currents are very rapid and irregular.

17th. About four in the afternoon, the man at the mast-head called out, that he had sight of a large rock to the north-north-east; and we were soon surrounded by a great number of sea-fowl, among which we noticed many boobies and gulls. It was night when we passed about six hundred yards to leeward of this shoal, from which we heard the screams of several of these birds; and by the favour of a fine moon-light night, we distinguished on the most prominent points a whiteness, which we ascribed to their excrement.

This rock, which is in latitude 31° 33′ 20″ south, longitude 179° east, is not much above half a mile in circumference, and seventy or eighty yards high. Toward its west end some reefs were observed.

As we passed to leeward of this shoal, we were in completely smooth water, so that if there had been any sunken rock in our course, we should