THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
7 i 
fmall iflands and rocks, with broken ground about them : 1776. 
we failed between thefe and Sentry-Box IfLand, the channel , December ; 
being a full mile broad, and more than forty fathoms deep ; 
for we found no bottom with that length of line. 
Being through this channel, we difcovered, on the South 
lide of Cape Cumberland, a bay, running in three leagues 
to the Weft ward. It is formed by this Cape to the North, 
and by a promontory to the South, which I named Point 
Pringle , after my good friend Sir John Pringle, Preftdent 
of the Royal Society. The bottom of this bay was called 
Cumberland Bay; and it feemed to be disjoined from the fea, 
which wafhes the North Weft coaft of this country, by a 
narrow neck of land. Appearances, at leaft, favoured fuch 
a conjecture. 
To the Southward of Point Pringle, the coaft is formed 
into a fifth bay; of which this point is the Northern ex¬ 
treme ; and from it, to the Southern extreme, is about four 
miles in the direction of South South Eaft \ Eaft. In this 
bay, which obtained the Name of White Bm, on account of 
fome white fpots of land or rocks in the bottom of it, are 
feveral lefler bays or coves, which feemed to be fheltered 
from all winds. Off the South point, are feveral rocks 
which raife their heads above water; and, probably, many 
more that do not. 
Thus far our courfe was in a direction parallel to the 
coaft, and not more than two miles from it. Thither our 
glades were continually pointed; and we could eafily fee 
that, except the bottoms of the bays and coves, which, for 
the moft part, terminated in fandy beaches, the fhores were 
rocky, and, in many places, fwarmed with birds ; but the 
country had the fame barren and naked appearance as in 
the neighbourhood of Chriftmas Harbour, 
We 
