CONE BAY. 163 



destruction must have been inevitable. Landing to 

 cook our dinners, I went to the top of the highest 

 neighbouring hill, to obtain a round of angles : our 

 journey was a perfect scramble, the face of the 

 country being intersected bv deep ravines, and 

 covered with huge blocks of course sandstone ; 

 over these we observed several of the rock-kan- 

 garoo, bounding with their long, bushy tails swing- 

 ing high in the air as if in defiance of pursuit. 

 The view of the archipelago, from this position, 

 fully satisfied me, that without incurring great risk, 

 it would be impossible for a ship to thread her way 

 through the numerous islands, independent of 

 shoals, tide-races, and shifting winds, which form 

 the ordinary perils of such navigation, I reckoned 

 more than eighty islands in this portion of the 

 archipelago alone. After dinner we proceeded, 

 steering N.N.E., and crossed two deep bays, the 

 first 3 and the second 4^ miles wide, both affording 

 good anchorage, but utterly useless from the barrier 

 of reefs and islets extending across their mouths. 

 These bays and the ranges of hills we passed, 

 trended E.S.E. To the second and deepest we gave 

 the name of Cone Bay, from a singular hill of that 

 form on its eastern shore. 



The eastern entrance of a small tortuous channel 

 afforded us a resting place for the night, having 

 made good 17 miles in a N.N.E. direction from the 

 ship. The observations were made for latitude on 

 the south point, and gave a result of 16" 24^' S. 



M 2 



