2^6 NEW IRELAND. 



Gloucejlert ftill remains undifcovered. A little to the foiith of 

 cape Stephens are three fingular hills, the Mother and Daugh* 

 iersy and behind them a vali volume of fmoke arofe, out of one 

 of the numerous volcanic hills of the country. The land, like 

 the reft of New Britain, was very lofty and wooded, with many 

 clear fpots, the figns of plantations, and frequent fires, the marks 

 of inhabitants. The general breadth of thefe ftreights are 

 about tifteen leagues * ; no bottom was found with a line of a 

 hundred and forty fathoms. Captain Carteret modeftly declined 

 giviftg-hi3 own name to this important difcovery, but called it 

 St. George's St. George's channel ; the ftreights properly end at cape Ste- 



Channel: . 



phens. As foon as that promontory is paned, there is one ex- 

 panfe of fea, probably quite to New Guinea, but the name of St. 

 George's channel is continued along the fliores of New Ireland, 

 to its weftern extremity, where it is broken into a fmaller ifle, 

 named by our navigator Hanover, and the extreme point, in 

 Lat. 2° 29' fouth. Long. 148° 27' eaft, queen Charlotte's foreland; 

 the approach to it is through a narrow paffage, between an ifte 

 called Sandwich, and Nezv Ireland. The land of Hanover ifle is 

 high, finely covered with trees, mixed with plantations, exhi- 

 biting a moft beautiful landfcape. 

 Len-gth or. The whol^ length of St. George"*?, channel, from cape St, 



George to queen Charlotte's foreland, is three hundred miles ; 

 that of New Ireland, from cape St. George to cape Biron, the 

 weftern extremity, is two hundred and forty miles; cape Birojt 

 is poflibly the fame with that we fee in Dampiefs map under 

 ■ the name of cape Solomafwar. As to the form of New Ireland, 



* Hawkfworth, iii. 596. 



it 



