JAN. 1770 MOUNT EGMONT 209 



day ; it is probably very high, as a part of its side, which 

 was for a moment seen, was covered with snow. The country 

 beyond it appeared very pleasant and fertile, the sides of 

 the hills sloping gradually. With our glasses we could dis- 

 tinguish many white lumps in companies, fifty or sixty 

 together, which were probably stones or tufts of grass, but 

 bore much resemblance to flocks of sheep: 1 at night a 

 small fire, which burned about half an hour, made us sure 

 that there were inhabitants, of whom we had seen no signs 

 since the 10th. 



1 3th. This morning, soon after daybreak, we had a 

 momentary view of our great hill, the top of which was 

 thickly covered with snow, though this month answers to 

 July in England. How high it may be I do not take upon 

 me to judge, but it is certainly the noblest hill I have ever 

 seen, and it appears to the utmost advantage, rising from 

 the sea without another hill in its neighbourhood one-fourth 

 of its height. 



14th. In a large bay, called in the draughts Murderers' 

 Bay ; the appearance of a harbour just ahead made us 

 resolve to anchor in the morning. 



1 5th. In the course of last night we were driven to the 

 eastward more than we had any reason to expect, so much 

 that we found ourselves in the morning past the harbour we 

 intended to go into. Another, however, was in sight, into 

 which we went. 2 The land on both sides appeared most 

 miserably barren, till we got some way up the harbour, 

 when it began to mend gradually. Here we saw some 

 canoes, which, instead of coming towards us, went to an 

 Indian town or fort built upon an island nearly in the 

 middle of the passage, which appeared crowded with people, 

 as if they had flocked to it from all parts. As the ship 

 approached it they waved to us as if inviting us to come to 

 them, but the moment we had passed, they set up a loud 

 shout, and every man brandished his weapons. 



1 Clumps of the remarkable Composite plant Eaoulia mammillaris, Hook, f., 

 or an allied species, called "vegetable sheep" in New Zealand. 



2 Ship's Cove, Queen Charlotte's Sound. 



P 



