PACIFIC AND BEERING’S STRAIT. 
159 
an opening into the lagoon in that direction, and had discovered near CHAP. 
It two anchors lying high up on the reef. VII. 
At daylight next morning land was seen to the southward, which 
on examination proved to be another small coral island, three miles and 
three-quarters in length, by three in width : its form is nearly an oblong 
with the southern side much curved. The lagoon in the centre was 
deep, its boundary very low and narrow, and in places it overflowed. 
Several ripplings were observed about these islands, but we passed 
through them without obtaining soundings. 
As soon as the plan of this island was completed, we returned to 
that upon which the anchors were observed, and spent the whole day 
m its examination. The lagoon was entered in the boats by a channel 
sufficiently wide and deep for a vessel of the class of the Elossom, and 
proved in every respect an excellent harbour: in entering, however, 
is necessary to look out carefully for rocks, which rise suddenly to 
the surface, or within a very short distance of it. 
On landing at the back of the reef, we perceived unequivocal signs 
ot a shipwreck — part of a vessel’s keel and fore-foot, broken casks, 
a number of staves, hoops, a ship’s hatch marked VIII., some cop- 
per, lead, &c., and the beach strewed with broken iron hoops, and 
^n their vicinity the anchors which were discovered the preceding 
^ay : there were also broken harpoons, lances, a small cannon, cast 
^etal boilers, &c. &c., and a leaden pump which had a crown and 
the date 1790 raised upon it. All the iron- work was much corroded, and 
inust have been a considerable time exposed to the action of the sea 
^nd air, but it was not overgrown in the least by the coral. Two of 
^hese anchors weighed about a ton each ; the other was a stream 
^'Rchor, and with one of the bowers, was at the break of the sea ; the 
other bower, together with the boiler, and all the before-mentioned 
l^aterials, were lying about two hundred yards from it. The situation 
^0 which they were found, the size of the anchors, the harpoons, staves, 
and the date of the pump, render it highly probable that they 
belonged to the Matilda, a whaler which was wrecked in 1792, in 
the night-time, upon a reef of coral rocks, in latitude 22° S., and 
longitude 138° 34' W. But whether they had been washed up there 
