COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
285 
be trusted with safety on so bad a bottom,) was isi9- 
too great to run any longer risk, and we left the Sept. 12. 
place, with a much stronger impression of its 
value and importance, than we entertained after 
the examination of an opening that was disco- 
vered by us a few days afterwards. 
At daylight, the land about Point Pearce (a is. 
sugar-loaf hill on the Goodwin Range) bore 
nearly due east. At eight ami., having stood to 
the S.S.W* for thirteen miles, the water changed 
colour ; the depth, however, still continued to be re- 
gular in twelve fathoms, and we steered on ; soon 
afterwards it shoaled to seven and five fathoms, 
upon which the helm was put up ; but before the 
vessels’ head was got round, we were in three 
fathoms, with the swell of the sea breaking so 
heavily around us, that our escape for the fourth 
time on this shoal was quite providential. After 
getting into clear water, we ran along the edge 
of the coloured water, sounding in fourteen fa- 
thoms hard sand, mixed with shells and stones ; 
at noon we hauled round its north-west ex- 
tremity, and steered for the land, which was 
soon afterwards visible from south to south-west, 
the latter bearing being that of a remarkable 
hill, of quadrilateral shape, answering in position 
to Captain Baudin’s Lacrosse Island. At two 
o’clock our soundings, for the first time since 
