198 NORTHWARD 



With the constant heavy westerly swell, the Frarrij 

 light as she now was, surpassed herself in rolling, and 

 that is indeed saying a great deal. This rolling brought 

 us a little damage to the rigging, the gaff of the main- 

 sail breaking; however, that affair did not stop us long. 

 The broken spar was quickly replaced by a spare gaff. 



Our hopes of arriving before the end of February 

 came to naught, and a quarter of March went by before 

 our voyage was at an end. 



On the afternoon of March 4, we had our first glimpse 

 of land ; but, as the weather was by no means clear and 

 we had not been able to determine our longitude with 

 certainty for two days, we were uncertain which point 

 of Tasmania we had before us. To explain the situation, 

 a short description of the coast-line is necessary. The 

 southern angle of Tasmania runs out in three promon- 

 tories; off the easternmost of these, and only divided 

 from it by a very narrow channel, lies a steep and 

 apparently inaccessible island, called Tasman Island. 

 It is, however, accessible, for on the top of it — 900 feet 

 above the sea — stands a lighthouse. The middle prom- 

 ontory is called Tasman Head, and between this and 

 the eastern one we have Storm Bay, which* forms the 

 approach to Plobart; there, then, lay our course. The 

 question was, which of the three heads we had sighted. 

 This was difficult, or rather impossible, to decide, so 

 indistinct was the outline of the land in the misty air; 

 it was also entirely unknown to us, as not one of us had 



