OF LA PEROtTSE. 45) 



thought that he was at the entrance of a great 

 gulf. Perhaps in that part of the coaft bc^ 

 the opening of a channel, which, after having 

 formed different finuofities, runs to the welt- 

 ward, and there forms another opening in the 

 fame latitude as that in which we experienced 

 fuch ftrong currents *. 



We did not meet with wefterlv winds till we 

 Reached the latitude of 40 fouth ; they carried 

 us to Cape piemen, varying from fouth-wefl to 

 north weft. 



About ten o'clork we faw pafling at a frnaH 

 i&iftance from us a groat number of cetaceous 

 fifties of a new fpecies, which appeared to me to 

 be of the delphinus genus. They may be eafily 

 diflinguifhed by a large black fpot which they 

 have on the back behind the dorfal fin; the upper 

 part of the body is of a blackifh brown, and the 

 belly white. The largeft were upwards of three 

 meters in length : they were preceded by a fhoai 

 pf dolphins (dtlpli'mus delphis), and were, like 



* This obfervation affords a ftriking proof of the juftuefs 

 of M. Labillardiere's difcernment ; for it has recently been 

 afcertained that the part of New Holland kr.own by the nam* 

 of Van Diemen's Land is, in faft, a detached ifland ; an EnglifU 

 yeffel having entered the eaftern mouth of this newly -difco- 

 yered Strait between the 38th and 39th degrees of fouth lati- 

 tude, and returned round the Seuth Cape to fort Jackfon. T. 

 o them, 



