&58 COOK'S VOYAGE TO APRIL, 



the Sound. For about three miles I found the shore 

 covered with small islands, which are so situated as 

 to form several convenient harbours, having various 

 depths of water, from thirty to seven fathoms, with 

 a good bottom. Two leagues within the Sound, on 

 this west side, there runs in an arm in the direction 

 of north north-west; and two miles farther is another 

 nearly in the same direction, with a pretty large island 

 before it. I had no time to examine either of these 

 arms ; but have reason to believe that they do not 

 extend far inland, as the water was no more than 

 brackish at their entrances. A mile above the second 

 arm, I found the remains of a village. The logs or 

 framings of the houses were standing ; but the boards 

 that had composed their sides and roofs did not exist. 

 Before this village were some large fishing weirs ; but 

 I saw nobody attending them. These weirs were com- 

 posed of pieces of wicker-work made of small rods, 

 some closer than others, according to the size of the 

 fish intended to be caught in them. These pieces of 

 wicker-work (some of whose superfices are, at least, 

 twenty feet by twelve), are fixed up edgewise in 

 shallow water, by strong poles or pickets, that stand 

 firm in the ground. Behind this ruined village is a 

 plain of a few hours' extent, covered with the largest 

 pine-trees that I ever saw. This was the more re- 

 markable, as the elevated ground, most other parts 

 of this west side of the Sound, was rather naked. 



From this place I crossed over to the other, or east 

 side of the Sound, passing an arm of it that runs in 

 north north-east, to appearance not far. I now found 

 what I had before conjectured, that the land, under 

 which the ships lay, was an island ; and that there 

 were many smaller ones lying scattered in the Sound 

 on the west side of it. Opposite the north end of 

 our large island, upon the main land, 1 observed a 

 village, and there I landed. The inhabitants of it were 

 riot so polite as those of the other I had just visited. 

 But this cold reception seemed, in a great measure, 



