THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 
79 
greater. And as this weed does not grow in a perpendicu- t 77 e. 
lar direction, but makes a very acute angle with the hot- , December - 
tom, and much of it afterward fpreads many fathoms on 
the furface of the fea, I am well warranted to fay, that 
fome of it grows to the length of fixty fathoms and up¬ 
ward. 
At one o’clock (having run two leagues upon a South 
Eaft | Eaft courfe, from noon) we founded, and found 
eighteen fathoms water, and a bottom of fine fand. Seeing 
a fmall bending in the coaft, on the North fide of Cape 
Digby, I lfeered for it. It was my intention to anchor there, 
if I fhould find it might be done with fafety, and to land 
on the Cape, to examine what the low land within it pro¬ 
duced. After running in one league, we founded again, 
and found thirteen fathoms ; and immediately after, faw a 
fhoal right before us, that feemed to extend off from the 
fliore, from which we were diftant about two miles. This 
difcovery obliged us to haul off, Eaft by South, one league, 
where our depth of water increafed to twenty-five fathoms. 
We then fleered along fliore, and continued in the fame 
depth, over a bottom of fine fand, till Cape Digby bore 
Weft, two leagues diftant, when we found twenty-fix fa¬ 
thoms. 
After this we did not ftrike ground, though we tried 
feveral times; but the fhip having a good deal of way, ran 
the line out before the lead could reach the bottom ; and 
being difappointed in my views both of anchoring and of 
landing, I would not fhorten fail, but pufhed forward, in 
order to fee as much of the coaft as poflible before night. 
From Cape Digby, it trends nearly South Weft by South 
for about four or five leagues, or to a low point, to which, 
m 
