Volume I Part 11 (2/2)

Having reached with difficulty the lat.i.tude of 27 degrees 37 minutes and longitude 104 degrees 51 minutes, a breeze freshened up, and gradually veered from South-South-East to East, and East-North-East.

July 9 to 13.

Between the 9th and 13th (on which day we pa.s.sed the meridian of Cape Leeuwin) we had variable winds between North-East and North-West: on the 9th the wind blew a heavy gale, in which our jolly-boat was washed away, and obliging us to bear up to the South-East prevented our seeing the land about Cape Chatham, as had been intended.

July 14 to 23.

Between this and King's Island we had strong gales from the westward, veering, at times, between north and south, with thick and sometimes rainy weather. During the southerly winds the air was very cold, and lowered the mercury to 47 and 49 degrees; but when the wind veered to the north it rose to 55 degrees, and gave us considerable relief.

On the 23rd soundings were struck off King's Island

July 24.

And the next morning we entered Ba.s.s Strait by pa.s.sing round the south end of the island. Here George Speed, one of our seamen, breathed his last; his death was occasioned by an excessive indulgence in the vegetables and fruits obtained at Timor, and he had been sick ever since we left that place; first with dysentery, and then with an intestinal inflammation.

The weather was so bad when we pa.s.sed through the south entrance to the Strait that we could make no very particular observation upon Reid's Rocks, but they appear to be correctly placed by Captain Flinders.

July 26.

We did not get through the Strait until the 26th. In pa.s.sing the Pyramid it was found to be placed five miles too much to the northward in Captain Flinders' chart.

The weather was now thick with heavy rain, and the wind blowing a gale from West-South-West. I became very anxious to arrive at Port Jackson; for we had but five men who could keep watch. The damp weather had attended us with little intermission since our pa.s.sing Cape Leeuwin, and our people had been constantly wet with the continued breaking over of the sea: indeed the decks had only been twice dry, and that even for a few hours, since we left that meridian.

July 27.

On the 27th, by sunset, we were abreast of Cape Howe.

July 29.

And on the 29th, at noon, the lighthouse on the south head of the port was joyfully descried. At eight o'clock in the evening we entered the heads, and anch.o.r.ed in Sydney Cove at midnight, after an absence of thirty-one weeks and three days.

Upon reviewing the proceedings of the voyage, the result of which bore but a small proportion to what we had yet to do, I saw, with no little satisfaction, that I had been enabled to set at rest the two particular points of my instructions, namely, the opening behind Rosemary Island, and the examination of the great bay of Van Diemen.

Upon rounding the North-West Cape, we had been unfortunate in losing our anchors, which very much crippled our proceedings, and prevented our prosecuting the examination of the coast in so detailed a manner as we otherwise might have done; for we possessed no resource to avail ourselves of, if we had been so unfortunate as to get on sh.o.r.e. A series of fine weather, however, on the first part, and a sheltered coast with good anchorage on the latter part of the voyage, enabled us to carry on the survey without accident; and nearly as much has been effected with one anchor as could have been done had we possessed the whole. It prevented, however, our examining the bottom of Exmouth Gulf, and our landing upon Depuch Island. The latter was a great disappointment to us, on account of the following description which M. Peron gives of the island, in his historical account of Baudin's Voyage, from the report of M. Ronsard, who visited it.

”Au seul aspect de cette ile, on pouvoit deja pressentir qu'elle etoit d'une nature differente de toutes celles que nous avions vues jusqu'a ce jour. En effet, les terres en etoient plus hautes, les formes plus p.r.o.noncees: a mesure qu'on put s'en rapprocher, la difference devint plus sensible encore. Au lieu de ces cotes uniformement prolongees, qui n'offroient aucune pointe, aucun piton, aucune eminence, on voyait se dessiner sur cette ile des roches aigues, solitaires, qui, comme autant d'aiguilles, sembloient s'elancer de la surface du sol. Toute l'ile etoit volcanique; des prismes de basalte, le plus ordinairement pentaedres, enta.s.ses les uns sur les autres, reposant le plus souvent sur leurs angles, en const.i.tuoient la ma.s.se entiere. La s'elevoient comme des murs de pierre de taille; ailleurs, se presentoient des especes de paves basaltiques, a.n.a.logues a ceux de la fameuse Chaussee des Geans. Dans quelques endroits on observoit des excavations plus ou moins profondes; les eaux des parties voisines s'y etoient reunies, et formoient des especes de fontaines, dans chacune desquelles nos gens trouverent une tres-pet.i.te quant.i.te d'excellente eau ferrugineuse. Dans ces lieux plus humides, la vegetation etoit plus active; on y remarquoit de beaux arbustes et quelques arbres plus gros, qui const.i.tuoient de pet.i.ts bosquets tres-agreables; le reste de l'ile, avec une disposition differente, offroit un coup d'oeil bien different aussi: parmi ces monceaux de laves enta.s.sees sans ordre, regne une sterilite generale; et la couleur noire de ces roches volcaniques ajoutoit encore a l'aspect triste et monotone de cette pet.i.te ile. La marche y est difficile, a cause des prismes de basalte qui, couches horizontalement sur le sol, presentent leurs aretes aigues en saillantes et dehors.”

M. Peron then quotes M. Depuch's (the mineralogist to the expedition) report: ”La couleur de ce basalte est d'un gris tirant sur le bleu; sa contexture est tres-serree, son grain fin et d'apparence petro-silicieuse; de pet.i.tes lames brillantes et irregulierement situees sont disseminees dans toute la ma.s.se; il ne fait aucune effervescence avec les acides, et n'affecte pas sensiblement le barreau aimante; sa partie exterieure a eprouve une espece d'alteration produite par les molecules ferrugineuses: cette decomposition n'atteint pas ordinairement au dela de 3 ou 4 millemetres de profondeur.”

M. Peron then continues M. Ronsard's report: ”M. Ronsard croit devoir penser, d'apres la conformation generale et la couleur de la partie du continent voisine, qu'elle est d'une nature semblable et volcanique.

C'eut ete, sans doute un objet d'autant plus important a verifier, que, jusqu'alors, nous n'avions rien pu voir de volcanique sur la Nouvelle Hollande, et que depuis lors encore, nous n'y avons jamais trouve aucun produit de ce genre; mais notre commandant, sans s'inquieter d'une phenomene qui se rattache cependant d'une maniere essentielle a la geographie de cette portion de la Nouvelle Hollande, donna l'ordre de poursuivre notre route.”

(*Footnote. Peron Voyage de Decouvertes aux Terres Australes volume 1 page 130.)

The rise of the tide was found by the French officer who landed upon it to be at least twenty-five feet, which fact of itself was sufficient to have induced us to examine into the cause of so unusual a circ.u.mstance; for the greatest rise that we had hitherto found was not more than eight or nine feet.

The hills at the back of this group of islands, which Commodore Baudin called L'Archipel Forestier, recede from the coast in the shape of an amphitheatre, which made me suppose that the coast trended in and formed a deep bay; but this still remains to be ascertained, and we quitted the place with much regret: for it unquestionably presented a far more interesting feature than any part that we had previously seen.

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