the bottom of the harbour.

To these particulars, which throw abundant light on this part of our
author's journal, I shall only add, that the distance of our harbour
from that where Boisguehenneu landed in 1772, is forty leagues. For
this we have the authority of Kerguelen, in the following
passage:--"Monsieur de Boisguehenneu descendit le 13 de Fevrier 1772,
dans un baie, qu'il nomme Baie du Lion Marin, & prit possession de cette
terre au nom de Roi; il n'y vit aucune trace d'habitants. Monsieur de
Rochegude, en 1774, a descendu dans un autre baie, que nous avons nomme
Baie de l'Oiseau, & cette seconde rade est a quarantes lieues de la
premiere. Il en a egalement pris possession, & il n'y trouva egalement
aucune trace d'habitants." _Kerguelen_, p. 92.--D.]

As a memorial of our having been in this harbour, I wrote on the other
side of the parchment,

_Naves Resolution
et Discovery
de Rege Magnae Britanniae,
Decembris_ 1776.

I then put it again into a bottle, together with a silver two-penny
piece of 1772; and having covered the mouth of the bottle with a leaden
cap, I placed it the next morning in a pile of stones erected for the
purpose, upon a little eminence on the north shore of the harbour, and
near to the place where it was first found, in which position it cannot
escape the notice of any European, whom chance or design may bring into
this port. Here I displayed the British flag, and named the place
Christmas Harbour, from our having arrived in it on that festival.

It is the first or northernmost inlet that we meet with on the S.E. side
of the Cape St Louis,[111] which forms the N. side of the harbour, and
is also the northern point of this land. The situation alone is
sufficient to distinguish it from any of the other inlets; and, to make
it more remarkable, its S. point terminates in a high rock, which is
perforated quite through, so as to appear like the arch of a bridge. We
saw none like this upon the whole coast.[112] The harbour has another
distinguishing mark within, from a single stone or rock, of a vast size,
which lies on the top of a hill on the S. side, near its bottom; and
opposite this, on the N. side, there is another hill, much like it, but
smaller. There is a small beach at its bottom, where we commonly landed;
and, behind it, some gently rising ground, on the top of which is a
large pool of fresh-water. The land on both sides of the inlet is high,
and it r