irely. This evening Mr Banks observed that in many parts of
the inlet there were large quantities of pumice-stones, which lay at a
considerable distance above high-water mark, whither they might have
been carried either by the freshes or extraordinary high tides, for
there could be no doubt but that they came from the sea.

The next morning we went early to work, and by four o'clock in the
afternoon had got out all the coals, cast the moorings loose, and warped
the ship a little higher up the harbour to a place which I thought most
convenient for laying her ashore in order to stop the leak. Her draught
of water forward was now seven feet nine inches, and abaft thirteen feet
six inches. At eight o'clock, it being high water, I hauled her bow
close ashore, but kept her stern afloat, because I was afraid of neiping
her; it was however necessary to lay the whole of her as near the ground
as possible.

At two o'clock in the morning of the 22d, the tide left her, and gave us
an opportunity to examine the leak, which we found to be at her
floor-heads, a little before the starboard fore-chains. In this place
the rocks had made their way through four planks, and even into the
timbers; three more planks were much damaged, and the appearance of
these breaches was very extraordinary: There was not a splinter to be
seen, but all was so smooth as if the whole had been cut away by an
instrument: The timbers in this place were happily very close, and if
they had not, it would have been absolutely impossible to have saved the
ship. But after all, her preservation depended upon a circumstance still
more remarkable: One of the holes, which was big enough to have sunk us,
if we had had eight pumps instead of four, and been able to keep them
incessantly going, was in great measure plugged up by a fragment of the
rock, which, after having made the wound, was left sticking in it, so
that the water which at first had gained upon our pumps was what came in
at the interstices, between the stone and the edges of the hole that
received it. We found also several pieces of the fothering, which had
made their way between the timbers, and in a great measure stopped those
parts of the leak which the stone had left open. Upon further
examination, we found that, besides the leak, considerable damage had
been done to the bottom; great part of the sheathing was gone from under
the larboard bow; a considerable part of the false keel was also
wanting, and t