l?74 e ROUND THE WORLD. 165 



between them is by a narrow channel five fathoms 

 deep. In the outer bason, I found thirteen and se- 

 venteen fathoms water, and in the inner, seventeen 

 and twenty-three. This last is as secure a place as 

 can be, but nothing can be more gloomy. The vast 

 height of the savage rocks which encompass it, de- 

 prived great part of it, even on this day, of the me- 

 ridian sun. The outer harbour is not quite free from 

 this inconvenience, but far more so than the other ; 

 it is also rather more commodious, and equally safe. 

 It lies in the direction of north, a mile and an half 

 distant from the east end of Burnt Island. I like- 

 wise found a good anchoring-place a little to the west 

 of this harbour, before a stream of water that comes 

 out of a lake or large reservoir, which is continually 

 supplied by a cascade falling into it. 



Leaving this place, we proceeded along the shore 

 to the westward, and found other harbours, which I 

 had not time to look into. In all of them is fresh 

 water, and wood for fuel ; but except these little tufts 

 of bushes, the whole country is a barren rock, doomed 

 by nature to everlasting sterility. The low islands, 

 and even some of the higher, which lie scattered up 

 and down the sound, are indeed mostly covered with 

 shrubs and herbage, the soil a black rotten turf, evi- 

 dently composed, by length of time, of decayed ve- 

 getables. 



I had an opportunity to verify what we had ob- 

 served at sea ; that the sea-coast is composed of a 

 number of large and small islands, and that the nu- 

 merous inlets are formed by the junction of several 

 channels ; at least so it is here. On one of these 

 low islands, we found several huts, which had lately 

 been inhabited ; and near them was a good deal of 

 celery, with which we loaded our boat, and returned 

 on board at seven o'clock in the evening. In this 

 expedition we met with little game ; one duck, three 

 or four shags, and about that number of rails or sea- 

 pies, being all we got. The other boat returned on 



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