232 Thirty Years 



i 

 August 16. — Some rain fell in the night, but the 



morning was unusually fine. We set forward at five 

 A. M., and the men paddled cheerfully along the coast 

 for ten miles, when a dense fog caused us to land on 

 Slate-clay Point. Here we found more traces of the 

 Esquimaux, and the skull of a man placed between 

 two rocks. The fog dispersed at noon, and we dis- 

 cerned a group of islands to the northward, which I 

 have named after Vice-Admiral Sir George Cockburn, 

 one of the Lords of the Admiralty. Ke- embarking, 

 we rounded the point and entered Walker's Bay, where, 

 as in other instances, the low beach which lay between 

 several high trap cliffs, could not be distinguished un- 

 til we had coasted down the cast side nearly to the 

 bottom of the bay. When the continuity of the land 

 was perceived, we crossed to the western shore, and 

 on landing, discovered a channel leading through a 

 group of islands. Eaving passed through this chan- 

 nel, we ran under sail by the Porden Islands, across 

 Riley's Bay, and rounding a cape which now bears the 

 name of my lamented friend Captain Flinders, had the 

 pleasure to find the coast, trending north-north-east, 

 with the sea in the oiling unusually clear of islands ; 

 a circumstance which afforded matter of wonder to our 

 Canadians, who had not previously had an uninter- 

 rupted \ iew of the ocean. 

 Our course was continued along the coast until 



