288 APPEARANCE OF THE COAST. 



temperature on board ship rang-ed between 72'' and 

 83*'. During our five days' sta}^ oiF Dufaure Island 

 we were daily employed in catching' rain water for 

 ship's use^ being* on reduced allowance of that 

 necessar}^ article. The wind throug-hout has been 

 steady at S.E.^ occasionally var^^ing* a point or two 

 towards east. 



Sept. IStJi, — For the last three days the coast has 

 appeared as a strip of low land^ backed by mountain 

 rano-es of moderate elevation.* We observed several 

 opening's^ apparently creeks or mouths of rivers^ and 

 saw much smoke and some canoes^ but our dis- 

 tance from the shore w^as too gTeat to allow of com- 

 munication. In the evening* we stood off to seaward^ 

 and during' the nig-ht^ while trying* to avoid it^ 23ro- 

 bably j^assed o^ er the assigned position of a reef laid 

 down on one of the charts as having* been seen in 

 1804^ but A^ ithout being' able to confirm or disprove 

 its existence.! 



* From the haze involving distant objects — less frequent (as 

 we afterwards had reason to believe) during the westerly monsoon — 

 the much higher Owen Stanley Range was not then visible ; it 

 had also, probably from the same cause, quite escaped the notice 

 of D'Urville who passed this portion of the coast at the distance of 

 about eight or nine miles. 



t Although this reef does not exist in the position assigned to 

 it, I may state that its presence upon the charts rests upon the 

 authority of Coutance ; Freycinet, rejecting Coutance's longitude 

 of Cape Deliverance and adopting that of D'Entrecasteaux, has 

 laid down the reef in question as bearing W.S.W, from Point 

 Hood, at a distance of twelve leagues. Another but smaller reef 

 is stated on the same autliority to exist five leagues S.E. | E. from 

 Cape Rodney. 



