n, so
called by them from the beauty of the anchoring-place, and which is
represented to be a commodious and safe situation. Bougainville
continued his survey to the westward, of which he has given a minute,
and to navigators, it is probable, a very useful description, not,
however, requisite for this work. Having spent a little time in this
excursion, and encountered a good deal of disagreeable weather, he
returned to the frigate, and on the last day of December weighed and set
sail, in order to pass the remainder of the straits. On the evening of
this day he doubled Cape Holland, and came to an anchor in the road of
Port Gallant, which was very fortunate, as the succeeding night became
tempestuous, the wind blowing hard at S.W. In this place, however, they
were forced by the state of the weather, which, it is said, was
inconceivably worse than the severest winter at Paris, to remain for
three weeks together, a space abundantly long to give them an intimate
acquaintance with the parts in their neighbourhood. Amongst the objects
which attracted their notice here, they found vestiges of the passage
and touching of English ships, especially a label of wood with the words
_Chatham, March_, 1766, and initial letters and names with the same
date, marked on several of the trees. M. Verron, who had got his
astronomical instruments on shore, made an observation, by which he
found the latitude to be 53 deg. 40' 41" S., from which, and some bearings
taken at different times, it was inferred that the distance from Port
Gallant to Port Forward was twelve leagues. An attempt was made by the
same gentleman to determine the longitude of the bay, by means of an
eclipse of the moon which occurred on the 3d January (1768); but the
excessive rain which continued through the whole day and night
frustrated his endeavours. The declination of the needle was observed by
the azimuth-compass to be 22 deg. 30' 32" N.E., and its inclination from the
elevation of the pole, 11 deg. 11'. Such is the poor amount of the
astronomical labours for nearly a month, in this so uncourteous a season
and climate. During this long and disagreeable residence, most annoying
to both men of science and common sailors, some visits from the
_Pecherais_, already mentioned, afforded a little recreation, but of no
very elegant or dignified kind; and even this, indifferent as it was,
presented a melancholy accident, with which the reader has been already
made acquainted--o