COAST OF SOUTHAMPTON. 53 



ninety to a hundred and thirty fathoms off it, 1S24. 

 while on almost every part which we coasted, August. 

 our hand-leads were going at from four to ten 

 miles from the beach, which in no one place 

 could be approached within a mile by a ship. 

 At daylight of the 25th we made out tolerably 

 high land at Cape Pembroke, with a long low 

 point running off it south-west. Working in 

 that direction all the day and night, at dawn 

 of the 26th we passed abreast of the high land, 

 and saw the beach trending south-west, until 

 lost in the distance. Here, it may be proper 

 to observe, the high land entirely ceased, and 

 we entered on a very flat beach of so uniform 

 an appearance, that we were frequently at a loss 

 for a large stone, or some break in the coast- 

 line, for the connexion of our angles as we 

 surveyed it. Our compasses had now become 

 quite useless with our head southerly, and that 

 in particular to which the plate was fitted, so 

 powerless, that its north point stood wherever 

 it was placed by the finger ; but with our head 

 northerly they all traversed again. This, how- 

 ever, benefitted us but little, for, as our route 

 lay to the south-west, we were without other 

 guidance than celestial bearings, which could 

 not always be obtained. We continued to near 

 the Cape Pembroke shore until one P,M.^ 



