458 VOYAGE IN SEARCH 



each caft: of the lead, we found that the depth 

 of water increafed from two fathoms to two and 

 a half : it had conftantly augmented in an almoft 

 imperceptible manner, in proportion as we re- 

 ceded from the coaft, which, on the 5th, at five 

 o'clock in the afternoon, was at the diftance of 

 twenty myriameters; then we got foundings in 

 lixty-one fathoms and a half, over a bottom of 

 pretty fine fand mixed with gravel, and from that 

 time we could not ftrike ground, although we 

 founded repeatedly. This flow increafe of the 

 depth of the fea near this coaft, fhewing that the 

 lands under water fink by a gentle declivity, 

 made me prefume that thofe which advance into 

 the interior of the ifland rile by an acclivity alfo 

 very gentle, fo that its high mountains are too 

 far diftant to be perceived from the fhore. 



The day before we had been carried twenty- 

 three miles to the weft ward of our reckoning, 

 and, in the courfe of the 7th, twenty miles in 

 the fame direction. At noon v%e were in latitude 

 35 # 3~'fouth. The rapidity with which thefe cur- 

 rents let to the weft ward, depends, perhaps, on 

 fome channel which feparates the lands of New 

 Holland from thofe of Cape Dicmen, between 

 Pwiut Hicks and Furneaux's Iftands. Captain 

 Cook, when he explored the caft part of New 

 Holland, faw no land in this fpace, the extent 

 of which is about twenty myriameters, and 



thought 



