THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 71 



fmall iflands and rocks, with broken ground about them : '776- 



r M 1 -I 1 /- , „ December. 



we laUed between thefe and Sentry-Box Ifland, the chan- 

 nel being a full mile broad, and more than forty fathoms 

 deep } for we found no bottom with that length of line. 



ffeing through this channel, we difcovered, on the South 

 fide of Cape Cumberland, a bay, running in three leagues to 

 the Weftward. It is formed by this Cape to the North, and 

 by a promontory to the South, which I named Point Pringle, 

 after my good friend Sir John Pringle, Prefidcnt of the Royal 

 Society. The bottom of this bay was called Cumberland 

 Bay; and it feemed to be disjoined from the fea, which 

 waflies the North Weft coaft of this country, by a narrow 

 neck of land. Appearances, at leaft, favoured fuch a con- 

 jedlure. 



To the Southward of Point Pringle, the coaft is formed 

 into a fifth bay; of which this point is the Northern ex- 

 treme ; and from it, to the Southern extreme, is about four 

 miles in the direction of South Sofith Eaft 4 Eaft. In this 

 bay, which obtained the Name of White Bay, on account of 

 fome white fpots of land or rocks in the bottom of ir, are 

 feveral lefler bays or coves, which feemed to be fhehered 

 from all winds. Off the South point, are feveral rocks 

 which raife their heads above water ; and, probably, many 

 more that do not. 



Thus far our courfe v.'as in a direcftion parallel to the 

 coaft, and nor more than two miles from it. Thither our 

 glafles were continually poinicd; and we could eafily fee 

 that, except the bottoms of the bays and coves, which, for 

 the nioft part, terminated in fandy beaches, the fhores were 

 rocky, and, in many places, fwarmed with birds ; but the 

 7 country 



