COASTS OF AUSTRALIA, 
171 
nine o’clock it bore between N.E. and S.E., and 
at a quarter after nine, heavy breakers were Jan* 17 * 
seen in the S.E.^ at the distance of five miles. 
The weather was now fine, and the wind S.S.E., 
but still blew strong; the horizon was so en- 
veloped by haze that the land, although not more 
than seven miles from our track, was very indis- 
tinctly seen: it seemed to be formed of sand hills, 
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet 
high, slightly studded with a scrubby vegetation ; 
in the interior we perceived a range of hills of 
tabular form, which are probably very high. 
At ten o’clock we passed another patch of break- 
ers at the distance of about a mile and a half ; 
but these appeared to have no connexion with 
those seen at nine o’clock. Our soundings were 
between fifteen and seventeen fathoms, and our 
distance from the beach, from six to seven miles. 
At noon the wind veered back to S.S.W., and 
blew hard: we were at this time in 29° 5' V' S. 
and by chronometers in 114° 40' 30" East; by 
which we found that a current had set us during 
the last twenty-four hours, to the N.N.W. at one 
mile per hour. At half past twelve o’clock, more 
breakers were seen, bearing N.W.|N., when 
we hauled off W.N.W., in order to ascertain the 
distance between the land and the Abrolhos 
bank, which, in Van Keulen’s chart, is placed 
abreast of this part of the coast. 
