CAPE SOUTHAMPTON. 125 



Nest," and at thirty past six the land was seen 1824. 

 from the mast-head between it and Cape South- Sept. 

 ampton. The weather during the forenoon 

 gave us reason to hope that it would continue 

 equally favourable, and that the present wind 

 would prove an exception to what we had 

 always experienced during the last three weeks, 

 which was, that every breeze, on having once 

 become steady, invariably ended in a heavy 

 gale. At ten we sounded in fifty-three fathoms. 

 It is remarkable that the sea is here of a dif- 

 ferent colour from that on the shoals oflf the 

 west coast of Southampton, as it there had a 

 whitish appearance, even at the depth of fifty 

 or sixty fathoms ; while in this part it was as 

 dark as the Atlantic, although the coast which 

 it washed, and the nature of the bottom, were 

 precisely the same. At noon our observations 

 gave us twenty-eight miles n.n.e. of the dead 

 reckoning, shewing the effect of a strong cur- 

 rent from the southward, in consequence of the 

 prevailing wind, and thus giving us great hopes 

 of passing Mansel Island by nightfall. Stand- 

 ing E.N.E. forty-five miles, we did not make 

 it at eight P.M., although it is laid do^vn as 

 only that distance from Cape Pembroke. We 

 therefore stood on all night east (true), but 

 allowing for lee-way, e.n.e., and had no hot- 



