78 cook's first voyage APRIL, 



and longitude 139M^8' W., and is distant from Lagoon 

 Island, in the direction of N. 62 W., about seven 

 leagues. We called it Thrumb-Cap. I discovered by 

 the appearance of the shore, that at this place it 

 was low water ; and I had observed at Lagoon Island, 

 that it was either high water, or that the sea neither 

 ebbed nor flowed. I infer, therefore, that a S. by 

 E. or S. moon makes high water. 



We went on with a fine trade-wind and pleasant 

 weather, and on the 5th, about three in the afternoon, 

 we discovered land to the westward. It proved to 

 be a low island of much greater extent than either 

 of those that we had seen before, being about ten or 

 twelve leagues in compass. Several of us remained at 

 the mast-head the whole evening, admiring its extra- 

 ordinary figure : it was shaped exactly like a bow, 

 the arch and cord of which were land, and the space 

 between them water : the cord was a flat beacli, 

 without any signs of vegetation, having nothing 

 upon it but heaps of sea-weed, which lay in different 

 ridges, as higher or lower tides had left them. Jt 

 appeared to be about three or four leagues long, and 

 not more than two hundred yards wide ; but as a 

 horizontal plane is always seen in perspective, and 

 greatly foreshortened, it is certainly much wider 

 than it appeared : the horns, or extremities of the 

 bow, were two large tufts of cocoa-nut trees ; and 

 much the greater part of the arch was covered with 

 trees of different height, figure, and hue ; in some 

 parts, however, it was naked and low, like the 

 cord. Some of us thought they discovered openings 

 through the cord, into the pool or lake, that was 

 included between that and the bow 5 but whether 

 there were or were not such openings is uncertain. 

 We sailed abreast of the low beach or bow-string, 

 within less than a league of the shore, till sunset, 

 and we then judged ourselves to be about half-way 

 between the two horns. Here we brought to, and 

 sounded, but found no bottom with one hundred and 



