152 DESCRIPTION OF THE COAST. 



capable of floating the largest line-of-battle ship. 

 The coast is irregular and rocky, possessing no beach, 

 and only in the bays, which are numerous and safe, 

 affording facilities for boat landing. The whole face 

 of the mountains, which in some cases exceed a mile 

 in height, is covered with tall trees. One of these 

 eminences, when seen from the sea, presents an 

 appearance precisely like a saddle, and hence was 

 named Saddle Mount ; and this was our landmark 

 for four months: cruising towards and from it — at 

 times going within a few miles, and seldom in clear 

 weather being out of sight of it. It can be seen from 

 the masthead a distance of one hundred and twenty 

 miles, as we proved by experience. 



On this ground, in company with us, there were 

 about a dozen English ships from Sydney and Ho- 

 bartow^n. After the lapse of a few weeks, the ships 

 Alexander and James Allen made their appearance. 

 Both these ships had run into Stew^art's Island for 

 vegetables, and whilst there they had lost several men 

 by desertion. From their description, there is little 

 or no settlement on the island, the country being 

 covered with the ordinary brush, and therefore pre- 

 senting scarcely any invitation to a sojourner. The 

 men who left the ships were put to a hard shift to 

 sustain themselves. Several of them manas-ed to 

 reach Otago, a town in the vicinity, where they ob- 

 tained employment ; several left in small crafts for 

 other ports on the coast; and one, (from whom I ob- 

 tained the knowledge of their adventures,) after in vain 

 trying to get along ashore, shipped in tlie colonial 

 whaling schooner Otago, where I saw him. He gave a 

 ludicrous description of their ups and downs. In the 



