177^. THE PACIFIC OCEAN. l6l 



digious quantity of sea- weed grows all over it, which 

 seemed to be the same sort of weed that Mr. Banks 

 distinguished by the name of Jucus giganteas.* Some 

 of this weed is of a most enormous length, though 

 the stem is not much thicker than a man's thumb. 

 I have mentioned, that on some of the shoals upon 

 which it grows, we did not strike ground with a line 

 of twenty-four fathoms. The depth of water, there- 

 fore, must have been greater. And as this weed 

 does not grow in a perpendicular direction, but makes 

 a very acute angle with the bottom, and much of it 

 afterwards spreads many fathoms on the surface of 

 the sea, I am well warranted to say, that some of it 

 grows to the length of sixty fathoms and upward. 



At one o'clock (having run two leagues upon a 

 S. E. i-E. course, from noon) we sounded, and found 

 eighteen fathoms' water, and a bottom of fine sand. 

 Seeing a small bending in the coast, on the north side 

 of Cape Digby, I steered for it. It was my intention 

 to anchor there, if I should find it might be done with 

 safety, and to land on the Cape, to examine what 

 the low land within it produced. After running in 

 one league, we sounded again, and found thirteen 

 fathoms ; and, immediately after, saw a shoal right 

 before us, that seemed to extend off from the shore, 

 from which we were distant about two miles. This 

 discovery obliged us to haul off, E. by S., one league, 

 where our depth of water encreased to twenty-five 

 fathoms. We then steered along shore, and continued 

 in the same depth, over a bottom of fine sand, till 

 Cape Digby bore west, two leagues distant, when we 

 found twenty-six fathoms. 



After this we did not strike ground, though we 

 tried several times ; but the ship having a good deal 

 of way, ran the line out before the lead could reach 

 the bottom; and being disappointed in my views both 

 of anchoring and of landing, I would not shorten sail, 



* See Hawkesworth's Collection of Voyages, Vol. ii. p. 42. 

 VOL. V. M 



