Duncan. — Following the Tracks of Captain Cook. 41 



■with me the modern one as surveyed by Captain Stokes and 

 Commander Drury of the "Acheron" and "Pandora" in 

 1849 and 1850, and in present use. Some names of places 

 given by Cook, and appearing on the old chart which he com- 

 piled on his first voyage, have been altered. Thus, Long Point 

 has been renamed Clarke Point, West Bay has been changed 

 to Endeavour Inlet, and Shag Cove to Eesolution Bay. The 

 following titles also appear on the modern chart : Mount Fur- 

 neaux, Edgecumbe Point, Pickersgill Island, and Fannin Bay. 

 These are all named after Cook's officers, but whether this was 

 done by Captain Stokes I do not know. In his second and 

 third voyages, as far as I can investigate, Cook has left no 

 record of having so named these places. 



On arrival at Picton I hired a handy little oil-launch in 

 preference to a sailing-boat, as I had only three days to spare. 

 After proceeding about sixteen miles down the Sound we were 

 on the look-out for a sheltered bay in which to pitch camp. 

 We sighted some tents in a picturesque cove, where Mr. James 

 Batcliffe is settling and building a house. He very kindly 

 offered to accommodate our party in his tents, and very com- 

 fortable he made us. 



Sir Joseph Banks speaks of the " melodious wild music of 

 the birds" in the early mornings at Queen Charlotte Sound. 

 He says that their notes resembled small bells, but with the 

 most tunable silver sound imaginable. It is generally sup- 

 posed that the korimako, or bell-bird, is pretty well extinct. 

 However, during the early morning at this camp I was agree- 

 ably surprised at hearing plenty of them. 



In the morning we were under way betimes, steering 

 straight across the Sound for Ship Cove. I believe that 

 almost every English boy has read Cook's Voyages, and must 

 have formed a picture in his mind of the haven in Queen 

 Charlotte Sound that Cook so often, and I may say so lovingly, 

 visited. A kind of intuition must have prompted this wonder- 

 ful seaman in the first instance to find such a perfect harbour. 

 Ship Cove, I should fancy, has almost the same appearance 

 at the present day as when the " Endeavour " dropped anchor 

 there on the 16th January, 1770, as the whole place is bush- 

 clad down to the water's edge. During Cook's later visits the 

 natives in great numbers were attracted by the presence of 

 the ships. We read that they cleared the flat land to make 

 room for their habitations until all the available space was 

 taken up by them. 



Several small streams percolate through the beach to the 

 sea, but the main stream which runs into the sea at the head 

 of the cove is a splendid rill of water. The filling of water- 

 casks here would be an easy matter in comparison with 

 Tolaga. It is rather hard to judge how much flat land there 



