1770. ROUND THE WORLD. 115 



some shells and bones of fish that had been roasted : 

 they found also heaps of grass laid together, where 

 four or five people appeared to have slept. The se- 

 cond lieutenant, Mr. Gore, who was at another place, 

 saw a little water lying in the bottom of a gulley, and 

 near it the track of a large animal : some bustards 

 were also seen, but none of them shot, nor any 

 other bird except a few of the beautiful loriquets 

 which we had seen in Botany Bay. Mr. Gore, and 

 one of the midshipmen, who were in different places, 

 said that they had heard the voices of Indians near 

 them, but had seen none : the country in general ap- 

 peared sandy and barren, and being destitute of fresh 

 water, it cannot be supposed to have any settled in- 

 habitants. The deep gulleys, which were worn by 

 torrents from the hills, prove, that at certain seasons 

 the rains here are very copious and heavy. 



The inlet in which the ship lay, I called Thirsty 

 Sound, because it afforded us no fresh water. It lies 

 in latitude 22 10". S., and longitude 210 18' W. $ 

 and may be known by a group of small islands lying 

 under the shore, from two to five leagues distant, in 

 the direction of N. W., and by another group of 

 islands that lie right before it, between three and 

 four leagues out at sea. Over each of the points 

 that form the entrance is a high round hill, which, on 

 the N. W., is a peninsula that at high water is sur- 

 rounded by the sea: they are bold to both the shores, 

 and the distance between them is about two miles. 

 In this inlet is good anchorage in seven, six, five, and 

 four fathom ; and places very convenient for laying 

 a ship down, where, at spring-tides, the water does 

 not rise less than sixteen or eighteen feet. The tide 

 flows at the full and change of the moon about 

 eleven o'clock. I have already observed that here 

 is no fresh water, nor could we procure refreshment 

 of any other kind : we saw two turtles, but we were 

 not able to take either of them : neither did we catch 



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