cxliv INTRODUCTION. [Prior Discoveries, 
InTsls* ^ ne ' an ^ ^ ac * ^ een so a ^ tne morn i n g» y et 110 l an d was any where to 
1798. be seen ; and I therefore concluded, that none could lie in or near 
the meridian of these islands, and be in the latitude of 39". 
The course steered at noon was west ; but in half an hour it 
was altered for high irregular land which came in sight to the 
south-westward, and proved to be the largest of the two clusters 
which I had discovered when in the Francis, and named Kent's Groups. 
We sounded in 30 fathoms, but lost the lead, the sole deep-sea line 
with which we had been furnished, proving to be totally rotten. 
After running twenty miles, assisted by a flood tide, we came up 
with the group at four o'clock, and steered though the channel by 
which the principal islands are separated. It is about three miles 
long, and a full mile in width ; is free from danger, and so deep, 
that our hand line could not reach the bottom. There are two sandy 
coves on the east, and one on the west side of the channel, where 
small vessels might find shelter, if there were any inducement to 
visit these steep, barren, granitic masses of rock. Above the cliffs 
we could occasionally perceive a brown-looking vegetation of brush 
wood, and here and there a few starved gum trees ; but there was 
neither bird nor quadruped to enliven the dreary scene,* The 
principal island of the small, western group, opened at S. 68° W., 
on clearing the channel ; and we then hauled the wind to the south- 
ward, for Furneaux's Islands, that the Nautilus might no longer be 
detained from her sealing business. 
The wind blew fresh from the eastward all night, with hazy 
weather. At daylight, Oct. 18, a large piece of hilly land bore 
N. 4S 0 to 6£ E., four leagues ; and soon afterward, Mount Chappell, 
a smooth round hill which had been seen from Preservation Island, 
* Kent's large group is not, however, so barren and deserted as appearances bespoke. 
It has since been ascertained that, in the central parts of the larger islands, there are 
vallies in which trees of a fair growth make part of a tolerably vigorous vegetation, and 
where kanguroos of a small kind were rather numerous ; some seals, also, were found 
Upon the rocks, and fresh water was not difficult to be procured in certain seasons, 
