COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
21 
bottom then gradually shoaled to 22 fathoms ; 1 818 - 
upon which we steered along the outer edge of Fcb * 1°* 
a line of breakers that fronted the shore, and 
after rounding a projection of the reef, steered 
to the E.N.E., towards the extreme of the 
land. 
The coast is here tolerably elevated, and may 
be seen at the distance of six or seven leagues ; 
it is composed of a red-coloured, sandy-looking 
rock, which is very scantily sprinkled with small 
shrubs, and appears to be extremely arid and 
steril. The shore is fronted with rocks that 
extend for three or four miles into the sea ; on 
the extremity of which the surf breaks with a 
continued foam. To the north the land suddenly 
terminates with rather a steep slope, but a low 
sandy plain extends to the E.N.E. for three miles 
further, the extremity of which is the North- 
West Cape. The fall of the high-land was 
called Ylaming Head, after the navigator who 
first discovered this part. 
After obtaining the meridional observation, 
we rounded the Cape, and steered between it 
and a patch of breakers which lie at the distance 
of a mile and a half from the shore : we were no 
sooner under the lee of the land, than the air, 
before of a pleasant and a moderate temperature, 
became so heated as to produce a scorching sen- 
