344 • CAPE BEDFORD. 



vessel had so miraculous an escape, after grind- 

 ing on the rocks for 23 hours, as graphically 

 described in his voyages. It is called Endeavour 

 Reef, from this circumstance. Continuing on the 

 same course, we passed three miles from Cape 

 Bedford, at 4, p.m. This is one of the most re- 

 markable features on the coast, being a bluff de- 

 tached piece of table land, surmounted by a singular 

 low line of cliffs, reminding me forcibly of the lava 

 capped hills on the river Santa Cruz, in eastern 

 Patagonia. As far as I could judge, by the aid of 

 a good glass, it seemed to be composed of a mix- 

 ture of red sand and ironstone, of a very deep 

 red hue, bearing a great similarity to the country 

 on the N.W. coast, in lat. ]5i° S. 



Leaving Cape Bedford, we went in search of a 

 shoal laid down by H.M.S. Victor, as lying two 

 miles to the W.S.W. of Three Isles. Both Captain 

 King and Lieutenant Roe had expressed a doubt of 

 its existence in the position marked, a doubt which 

 our researches fully justified ; and therefore, as it 

 at present stands, it should be expunged from the 

 chart. From thence we steered north for Lizard 

 Island, the remarkable peak on which soon rose in 

 sight ; this course took us within three miles of 

 Cape Flattery, where a couple of peaks, with a 

 slope between them, render it a conspicuous head- 

 land 



About seven miles west from thence, there is a 

 strange alteration in the appearance of the country, 



