58 CAPTAIN' TUCKEY'S NARRATIVE. 



experienced, carried us along shore until the evening, when 

 we anchored in ten fathoms. The land south of Mayumba 

 to 3° 50', has an agreeable appearance, rising in a series 

 of three or four gentle elevations from the sea inland, the 

 farthest and highest not deserving the name of hill ; the 

 whole covered with wood, except in some spots vrhich 

 were bare of wood, and resembled spots of burnt-up grass. 

 A sandy beach margins the sea, which breaks in a surf 

 that must prevent the access of an European boat, unless 

 some of the many projecting points give slielter to coves 

 where a landing may be eftected. The soundings are here 

 very regular, altering about a fathom in a mile, and the depth 

 at six miles off shore ten fathoms. The bottom is extremely- 

 various, but sand predominates, brown, black, white, with 

 sometimes quartz pebbles, small lumps of yellow ochre, bits 

 of corals, and frag-ments of shells of the cockle and venus 

 genera. 



Never did lover wait more anxiously for the hour of as- 

 signation with his mistress, than we now did for that of the 

 usual setting in of the sea breeze, on which alone we found 

 we must depend to finish this eternal passage, for the land 

 winds were so famt as not to render us the smallest service, 

 and the currents the day after new moon returned with en- 

 creased velocity. 



