DIRK GERRITZ ARCHIPELAGO. 178 



as an island, which he named Rosamel Island, being 

 confirmed in his error by a deep bay from the north 

 which nearly severs the cape from the peninsula. With 

 the exception of this break the coast line again extends 

 north-east back to Point des Francais. The whole island 

 is surrounded by a great number of rocks and rocky 

 islets ; a larger one, Dundee Island, lies off the south, 

 separated from the main island by a channel of which 

 the western section, called Active Sound, extends north- 

 east towards Gibson Bay, while the far longer eastern 

 part extends S.S.E. and bears the name of Firth of Tay. 

 The southern point of Dundee Island is Cape Purvis, 

 named by Ross, beyond which Paulet Island and its 

 smaller neighbour Eden Island project. The channel 

 itself is about thirty miles long, two to two and a half 

 miles broad in the western part, and contains somewhat 

 considerable depths, probably over 540 feet ; in its eastern 

 portion its breadth is upwards of six miles. Dundee 

 Island is thirty-four miles long with an average breadth 

 of over four miles. 



On the east side of Joinville Island, and at some 

 considerable distance from it, are the outlying Danger 

 Islets of which the southernmost, Darwin Islet, lies at 

 a distance of fifteen miles from Cape Moody. Altogether 

 there seems to be seven, of which two, however, are mere 

 cliffs to which other cliffs are added close in shore. The 

 whole north coast, too, is fringed with rocks, and last of 

 all, east of Cape Fitzroy, comes a small, elevated, cone- 

 shaped island, which Ross, from its resemblance to the 

 European volcano, named Etna Islet. 



The surface of Joinville Island exhibits a striking 

 difference between the west and the east. While the 

 whole western portion is low and flat, and scarcely above 

 325 feet high at its greatest elevation — especially on the 

 south side, where, however, one steep hill called D'Urville's 

 Monument by Ross, rises on the coast of Active Sound 



