Volume II Part 11 (2/2)
On examining into the state of our dry provisions it was mortifying to find that the rats and c.o.c.kroaches had destroyed an incredible quant.i.ty, particularly of our biscuit and flour. In one of the casks of the latter more than two-thirds of its contents was deficient. The biscuit was completely drilled through and the greater part would not have been thought fit to eat if we had possessed any of a better quality; I still however hoped to have a sufficiency on board to complete the survey of the north-west coast before our return to Port Jackson, which I now found would of necessity be at least four or five weeks before the time I had fixed upon when we left the Mauritius. As it would take up a great portion of the time we had now left to make a more extensive examination of Shark's Bay than what the French have already performed, and would entirely prevent my going upon the north-west coast again; it was determined that we should not delay here, but pa.s.s on and resume our examination of the coast at Cape Cuvier, the northern head of the bay.
The only part of Shark's Bay that seems to be at all interesting, and to require further examination, is the eastern side of the bay immediately opposite to the Islands of Dorre and Bernier; but from the very intricate and shoal nature of its approach it is very doubtful whether even a sight of the land in that direction could be procured.
The rocks of Dirk Hartog's Island are of a very remarkable formation, consisting of a congeries of quartzose sand, united in small circular kernels by a calcareous cement in which some sh.e.l.ls were found embedded.
The geological character of this rock is more fully treated upon in the Appendix by my friend Dr. Fitton.
”Upon the summit of the cliffs there are a few low shrubs, at this time much parched up, but among them Mr. Cunningham found a tolerably rich harvest. In his collection were the following plants, which were originally brought to Europe by Dampier; namely, Trichinium incanum, Br.; Diplolaena dampieri, Desf.; solanum, a th.o.r.n.y ferruginous species without fructification (Solanum dampieri ?) Dampiera incana, Br.; and a cordate melaleuca, figured by Dampier*: a beautiful loranthus (teretifolius, Cunningham) grew on the branches of an undescribed acacia (Acacia ligulata, Cunningham ma.n.u.script):”...”many were the wrecks of most interesting plants, and especially those of soft herbaceous duration, which had some time since fallen a sacrifice to the apparent long-protracted drought of the season; but it was impossible, amidst the sad languor of vegetation, not to admire the luxuriant and healthy habit of an undescribed species of pittosporum (oleifolium, Cunningham ma.n.u.script) which formed a small robust tree, ten feet high, laden with ripe fruit. We could perceive no traces either of remains of fires, or otherwise of natives, in the whole length of our walk along the edge of the cliffs or the plains, but we saw two snakes of very distinct kinds, each exceeding five feet in length; the one black with a yellow belly, the other green and black, but they quickly escaped into holes, leaving a serpentine impression of their bodies upon the sand. These marks were seen and remarked near the edge of all the holes, which were very numerous upon the surface of the island, before I discovered that they were the tracks of reptiles, from which it may be inferred that these animals are very abundant. The only bird seen was a solitary species of loxia, but upon a steep ledge of rocks I observed one of those nests of which frequent mention has been already made: I examined and found it built upon the pinnacle of some large rocks, very strongly constructed of long sticks; it was about five feet high and exceeded four feet in diameter, with a very slight cavity above; and seemed to have been very recently inhabited. The rocks that formed its base were ornamented with a prostrate capparis, or calyptranthus (Calyptranthus...o...b..cularis, Cunningham ma.n.u.script) which afforded me good flowering specimens. In my walk I started a small black kangaroo: it was feeding upon the seeds of a small acacia and, upon perceiving my approach, fled across the down without reaching a single bush or rock large enough to conceal itself as far as the eye could discern it, so bare and dest.i.tute of vegetation are these arid, sandy plains.”* The heat of the weather was so great as not to allow of any communication with the sh.o.r.e, excepting between daybreak and eight o'clock. Mr. Cunningham's visits were therefore necessarily much confined: this precaution I found it absolutely requisite to take to prevent the people from being exposed to the very great heat of the sun, which on sh.o.r.e must have been at least twenty degrees more powerful than on board, where the thermometer ranged between 71 1/2 degrees at midnight, and 85 and 87 degrees at noon. The barometer ranged between 29.76 and 29.99 inches, and stood highest when the wind was to the eastward of south, with which winds the horizon was much clearer, and the air consequently drier than when the wind blew from the sea.
(*Footnote. Cunningham ma.n.u.script.)
As an anchorage during the summer months Dirk Hartog's Road has everything to recommend it, excepting the total absence of fresh water which, according to the French, was not found in any part of Shark's Bay; the anchorage is secure and the bottom clear of rocks. There is also an abundance of fish and turtle, and of the latter a s.h.i.+p might embark forty or fifty every day, for they are very sluggish and make no effort to escape, perhaps from knowing the impossibility of their scrambling over the rocky barrier that fronts the sh.o.r.e, and dries at half ebb. Of fish we caught only two kinds; the snapper, a species of sparus, called by the French the rouge bossu, and a tetradon which our people could not be persuaded to eat, although the French lived chiefly upon it. There are some species of this genus that are poisonous but many are of delicious flavour: it is described by M. Lacepede in a paper in the Annal. du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle (tome 4 page 203) as le Tetrodon argente (Tetrodon argenteus).
January 26.
On the 26th we sailed and pa.s.sed outside of Dorre and Bernier's Islands; nothing was seen of the reef that lies in mid-channel on the south side of Dorre Island: a rippling was noticed by Mr. Roe in an East by South direction from the masthead at twenty minutes before one o'clock but, if the position a.s.signed to it by the French is correct, we had pa.s.sed it long before that time. At six o'clock Kok's Island, the small rocky islet that lies off the north end of Bernier's Island, bore North 83 degrees East, distant seven miles.
January 27.
The following morning at daylight the land was seen in the North-East and at half-past eight o'clock we resumed our course and pa.s.sed Cape Cuvier, a reddish-coloured rocky bluff that presents a precipitous face to the sea. The coast thence takes a North by East direction; it is low and sandy and fronted by a sandy beach, occasionally interrupted by projecting rocky points; those parts where patches of bare sand were noticed are marked upon the chart.
At one o'clock we were near a low sandy projection round which the coast extends to the East-North-East and forms a shallow bay. This projection was called after Sir Robert Townsend Farquhar, Bart., the late Governor of the Mauritius.
Farther on, in lat.i.tude 23 degrees 10 minutes 30 seconds, is a projection which, at Mr. Cunningham's request, was called after Mr. William Anderson of the apothecaries' garden at Chelsea. The coast to the northward of Point Anderson is higher than to the southward and falls back to the North-East, but was very imperfectly seen on account of the thick haze that enveloped it. At a quarter before seven o'clock we hauled to the wind for the night with a fresh gale from the southward.
January 28.
The next morning was cloudy and the horizon tolerably clear; but towards noon a light haze began to spread, which by sunset was so thick as entirely to conceal the land. The mercury fell as low as 29.76 inches and, although the thermometer was at 79 degrees and the sun powerful, yet the atmosphere was so charged with moisture that the decks and everything out of the immediate influence of the sun were quite damp. This extraordinary and constant humidity appeared only to occupy the atmosphere for the sky was always beautifully clear and serene.
During the night the gale blew strong from the southward with a high topping sea from the South-West; and being occupied in s.h.i.+fting the main topsail which had split during the night, we stood off until three o'clock before we tacked towards the sh.o.r.e.
January 29.
At eight o'clock being in lat.i.tude 22 degrees 19 minutes 23 seconds, the land was visible from North-East to South 35 degrees East at the distance of five or six leagues: by its outline which, from the glare of the sun was the only part at all discernible, it seemed to be of moderate height, very level, and offering no particular mark that could be set with any chance of recognition to obtain a cross bearing. As there is every reason to believe that this part of the coast is what was taken by former navigators for Cloates Island,* I have named the southernmost point of the high land Point Cloates.
(*Footnote. See volume 1.)
At noon we were in lat.i.tude 21 degrees 57 minutes 5 seconds, having experienced a current of twenty-three miles to the north since yesterday at noon. The northern extreme, Vlaming's Head, bore North-East by East 1/2 East and the south extreme South 7 degrees West; and in the bearing of between South 32 degrees to 82 degrees East the land is higher than in other parts and declines very gradually towards the extreme.
As the brig approached the land breakers were seen to extend the whole length of the sh.o.r.e, which is fronted by a sandy beach: the land is of moderate height but the summit is rather more rugged than that to the southward where the outline is perfectly level. At half-past three o'clock Vlaming Head bore south six miles and three quarters off: at four o'clock the lat.i.tude, by the moon's meridional alt.i.tude, was found to be 21 degrees 38 minutes 27 seconds, at which time sights were taken for the chronometer, which made the longitude of the head 114 degrees 2 minutes 16 seconds: the situation a.s.signed to it on our first voyage was 114 degrees 1 minute 47 seconds; the mean of the two, 114 degrees 2 minutes 2 seconds, may therefore be considered its true situation.
From the above observation for the lat.i.tude of the North-West Cape agreeing nearly with those of our former voyage, I was induced to think that there might be some land more to the northward that the French saw and took for the cape; for they have placed it in 21 degrees 37 minutes 7 seconds South, which is nearly 10 minutes too northerly. Captain Horsburgh, in the supplement to his Directory, notices some islands seen by the San Antonio in 1818, called Piddington's Islands, that are said to lie in the lat.i.tude of 21 degrees 36 minutes, but after steering seventeen miles to the North-East from the above situation, without seeing anything like land, there remained no doubt in my mind that the French must have been deceived and that Piddington's Islands are some of the low, sandy islets to the eastward of Muiron Island.
January 30.
Having steered through the night on a north-east course, Barrow's Island came in sight the next morning, when it was about five leagues off; at eight o'clock it bore between South 27 East and North 87 degrees East.
From noon to three p.m. we had calm, dull, and cloudy weather; and although the thermometer did not range higher than 87 degrees, the heat was extremely oppressive, and occasioned the death of three of our turtles. At three o'clock a breeze springing up from the westward enabled us to steer to the northward round the Montebello Islands, in doing which we saw nothing of Hermite Island, which the French have laid down as the westernmost island of that group. There is certainly no land to the westward of Trimouille Island; and the error can only be accounted for by Captain Baudin's having seen the latter at two different periods; indeed this conjecture is in some measure proved, since there is a considerable reef running off the north-west end of that island, which in the French chart is attached to Hermite Island; this reef might not have been seen by him at his first visit, and when he made the land again and observed the reef he must have concluded it to have been a second island.
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