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:* 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. 
13th. 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. 
15th. 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.” 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 Raoulia mammillaris, Hook. f., 
or an allied species, called ‘‘ vegetable sheep” in New Zealand. 
2 Ship’s Cove, Queen Charlotte’s Sound. 
P 
