THE JOURNAL OF JOHN BALLENY. 337 
During the whole month of December, the midsummer of these lati- 
tudes, the weather here was very stormy, with heavy rain, but the 
vessels laid secure in Port Chalky, or Port Souta, an excellent harbour, 
rather more than 3 miles long by 1 broad, on the south-eastern side of 
Chalky Bay, and were fully occupied in refitting, watering, etc., and 
making every preparation for their sealing voyage to the Frozen Ocean. 
In speaking of Chalky Bay, Captain Balleny says :— 
“When about 5 or 6 miles to the westward of Cape West, one sees 
the white cliffs of Chalky Island lying near the middle of the entrance ; 
yet the cliffs are not of chalk, as might be supposed from the name, but 
of hard white rock. In running down to the §.8.H. from Cape West 
you see the Table Rock (always from 10 to 12 feet above water) broad 
on the starboard bow. Now, by the plan of Chalky Bay,* given to me 
before my departure from England by Captain Washington, Secretary 
to the Geographical Society, when 2 miles off Cape West the Table 
Rock appears shut in with the south point of Chalky Island, whereas 
it should be placed more than a mile farther west, or bearing 8.8.W., 
and not 8.E., of the south point of the island. South-easterly from the 
Table Rock extends a very dangerous reef, on which the sea in bad 
weather breaks furiously, and at the southern extremity is a rock always 
above water: this reef, about a mile long, extends directly across the 
entrance of Chalky Bay, so that all ships ought to make Cape West. 
“ There is no hidden danger in beating up the bay, but the soundings 
laid down are all imaginary: there are no soundings till within a few 
yards of the rocks. I worked up the bay with the deep-sea lead going 
all the way, and I never yet struck the bottom. Only twice the 
schooner’s length from the rocks, abreast of the cascade in Deep Bay or 
Cunaris Arm, we had an up and down cast with 80 fathoms and no 
bottom, yet it is marked on the chart 10 and 7. The entrance into 
Port North is narrow but deep, and at the top shoals till there is scarce 
water for a boat. Edwardson’s Arm forms a splendid harbour. Port 
Chalky or Port Souta, on the south side of Chalky Bay, is the harbour 
generally used by ships visiting this part of New Zealand. In the 
entrance, and nearly in the middle, but rather nearer Garden Island, is 
a rock just visible at high water. Looking up Port Chalky, the first 
bight or bend of the land on the left is called Ship Cove, and off the 
point, where 10 fathoms are marked, a reef runs up the harbour nearly 
one-third across the cove. The Eliza Scott's anchor was let go in 
8 fathoms, and when she swung she struck on the reef: about three 
times the ship’s length from the reef we had 22 fathoms. In mid- 
channel are marked 8, 7,6 and 3 fathoms. Now the fact is, that in 
* A copy of the plan given in Admiral Duperrey’s * Atlas of the Voyage of the 
Coquille? compiled by the lamented M. de Blosseville from information obtained at 
Sydney from Captain Edwardson and the commanders of some English merchant ships. 
See also the ‘ Annales des Voyages,’ vol. xxix.—Ep. Journ. Roy. Geogr. Soc. 
Z 
