70 COASTING THE SOTJTH 



1824. grasses were flourishing most luxuriantly. It 

 August, is remarkable that no sorrel should have 

 been found in our three visits to this shore, 

 and that the ground willows were so small, 

 that their leaves did not rise above the 

 mosses, but grew entwined amongst them. I 

 picked up about a dozen dead shells of 

 muscles. 



At thirty minutes after nine, when I left 

 the beach, it was low water. At eleven the 

 tide turned in the offing, and flowed from the 

 eastward. We now observed in-shore of us a 

 long overfall, having deep water within it, 

 and running at a mile from the beach to a low 

 point five or six miles w.s.w. of us. 



Weighing at one P.M., we lay along the 

 shore with the wind from the ^southward, un- 

 til arriving at the above point, to which I gave 

 a wide birth, as a heavy surf was breaking 

 over a long shoal which ran from it, and the 

 wind was freshening from the north-west, 

 whence it soon blew a gale, and brought us 

 under close-reefed topsails. A strong weather 

 tide rose so short and high a sea, that for three 

 hours the ship was unmanageable, and pitched 

 bowsprit under every moment. We now 

 found that although with our head off this 

 truly dangerous shore, we were nearing it 



