Page:Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World in the Years 1791–95, volume 1.djvu/387

Rh fervations l)cing deduced from the watch, according 10 its rate as fetilcd in Birdi bay, which was not very hkcly to have yet acquired any mate- rial error, inclined nie to believe we were probably the moll corretl. Early in the aliernoon Mr. Broughton returned, having lund a more eligible anchorage, though in a fituation equally dreary and unpleafant. The feveral gentlemen in the boats being made acquainted with the (la- tion to which the fhips were about to refort, departed agreeably t<< their refpeftive inflrutlions. The wind that {inre noon had blown frefli from the s. e, pfwndlcd wuh heavy fqua lis and 11 '1 rain, drove us by its increafed violence iVom our anchorage, and fl inilantly into 70 and 80 fathoms water. The anchor was immediately hove up, and we fleered for the rendezvous Mr. Broughton had j)ointc(l out, where about fix in the evening we arrived in company with our little fquadron. Our fituation here was on the northern fide of an arm of the found leading to the north weflward, a lit- tle more than half a mile wide, prefenting as gloomy and difmal an afi)e6l as nature could well be fuppofed to exhibit, had fhc not l)ecn a little aided by vegetation ; which though dull and unintcrefling, fcreencd from our fight the dreary rocks and precipices that compofc thefe defolate fhores, efpecially on the northern fidc; as the oppofite fhore, though extremely rude and mountainous, poffeffed a fmall fpace of nearh' level land, flretching from the water fide, on which fome different foils of the pine tribe, arbor vitae, maple, and the oriental arbutus, fwnud to grow with fome vigour, and in a better foil. The very circumfcribed view that we had of the countrv here, ren- dered it impoffible to form the mofl diflant idea of anv circumflanccs re- lative to the fituation in which we had become ftationaiy ; whether com- pofed of iflands, or of fuch arms of the fea as we had lately been em- ployed in examining, or how long there was a probabilit)' of our remain- ing in anxious expe6^ation for the return of our friends. Our refidence here was truly forlorn ; an aweful filence pervaded the gloomy forefls, whilfl animated nature feemed to have deferterl the neidibourin*'- coun- try, whofe foil afforded only a ihw finall onions, fome famphire, and here and there bufties bearing a fcanty crop of indifferent berries. Nor