V0YAGF H? SEARCH 



by reefs, and connected with each other by fond- 

 banks and fhoals. 



During the night of the 29th the winds had 

 fet us fo tar to leeward, that we had loft light 

 of the northern extremity of New Caledonia, 

 which was found to be in the latitude of 29 58' 

 fbuth, and longitude of 161 10' eaft. This 

 ifland prefents a chain of mountains, which oc- 

 cupy an extent of near forty-eight myriamcters, 

 from lbuth-caft to north- weft. Its mean breadth 

 is not more than from three to four myriameters. 

 Captain Cook, who difcovered it in 1772, faw 

 only its north-eaft fide. It was important to 

 navigation to explore its fouth-eaft coafl : the 

 rocks by which it is fkirtcd, are generally from 

 five to fix kilometers difiant from the fhorc ; and 

 towards its extremities, where it is the narrower}, 

 there are fome at a greater diftancc. This coaft, 

 which is extremely dangerous at all times, is ftill 

 much more fo with the fouth-eaft winds, which 

 had Angularly thwarted us in the furveythat we 

 had juft made of it. 



fmall number of fires which we perceived 

 o. this land, and its apparent fterility, incline 

 me to think that it is thinly inhabited. We 

 . not a (ingle canoe, although it is very eafy 

 to navigate there under fhclter of the reefs, 

 where the fea is exceedingly fmooth. 



At icven o'clock in the morning we faw from 

 the north -north-eaft to the caft-north-eaft, feve- 



ral 



