d. The
passage between them is much contracted by shoal spits of sand which run
out from each side; and it seemed doubtful, whether the water were deep
enough in any part of the channel to admit a ship. The form of the land
here is somewhat remarkable: upon the low projection of the great island
there are three pyramidal hills, which obtained the name of the
_Patriarchs_, and stand apart from the more western high land; and upon
the south-west end of the island opposite there is also a pyramid, which,
with other hills near it, presents some resemblance to the Lion's Head
and Rump at the Cape of Good Hope. This island and two rocky islets lying
off its south-east end were afterwards called the _Babel Isles_. The
largest is covered with tufted grass and brush wood; and the whole
appeared to be much frequented by shags, sooty petrels, and other sea
birds.

We had scarcely passed the Babel Isles, when the wind, which had been at
W. by S., chopped round to the southward, with squally weather, and drove
the schooner off to the north-east. In the night, it became less
unfavourable; and at noon of the 10th, our latitude was 40 deg. 31/2'; the
isles bore N. 78 deg. W., three or four leagues, and the high land of _Cape
Barren_ S. 13 deg. to 34 deg. W. Having a fair wind in the afternoon, we passed
along the outskirts of the Bay of Shoals, without perceiving any
breakers; but in the space between the great island and the land of Cape
Barren there were many rocks, and a low island of three or four miles
long, with a hill in the middle, lay at the entrance of the opening.

The high part of Cape-Barren Island, but particularly the peak, may be
seen eleven, and perhaps more leagues from a ship's deck. The extremity
of the cape is a low point, which runs out two miles east from the high
land; and off this point lies a flat, rocky islet and a peaked rock. The
shore is sandy on each side of the Cape point: it trends N. 40 deg. W., for
about five miles, on one side, and S. 49 deg. W., past two sandy bights on
the other, to a rocky projection on which are two whitish _cones_, shaped
like rhinoceros' horns.

We steered south-westward, in the evening, round the Cape point, and were
sufficiently close to hear the bellowing of the seals upon the islet.
Arrived off _Cone Point_, the schooner was hauled offshore; and the wind
becoming strong and unfavourable in the night, it was not until the
evening of the 12th, that we got to anchor in _Hami