he ebb tide, which, while the
sloop was at anchor, was observed to come from the SSW or directly out of
the bight, running at the rate of two miles and a half per hour. By noon,
it being ascertained that there was not any inlet, they bore away to the
Westward along the land.

Their distance from the shore did not exceed a mile and a half. The back
country consisted of high hummocky mountains, whose parallel edges were
lying elevated one above another to a considerable distance inland. The
land in front was woody and bushy, of a moderate height, but sandy.

At three in the afternoon they ran through between a sandy point, with
shoal water off it, and two islands. One of these, named Waterhouse Isle,
is between two and three miles in length, rather high, but level, and
covered with large wood. The other is small, low, rocky, and almost bare.
The coast now trended to the SSW the land sloping up gradually from the
sea to a moderate height, with more open than wooded ground, and but
little brush; but the soil appeared sandy, and the grass but thinly
grown. The hummocky mountains still retained their general figure in the
more interior parts.

As they proceeded, the shore no longer preserved any regular line of
direction, but fell back into sandy bights. Hauling off for the night, a
little to the westward of a small rocky and barren island, lying about
four miles from the land, at six o'clock the following morning they came
in with it again, near where they had left it the preceding evening, and
began their course along the shore, which trended to the SSW in an
irregular manner, with a sandy country at its back.

At eleven o'clock they passed within a mile of a high grassy cape, which
is the seaward extremity of a ridge, that, rising up by a gentle ascent,
retreats and joins some chains of lofty mountains. A small rocky island
lay two miles from it to the WSW. At noon the latitude was 40 degrees 55
minutes 25 seconds, and the longitude 147 degrees 16 minutes 30 seconds.

Early in the afternoon a gap in the land situated at the back of a deep
narrow bight, which had for some time attracted attention, began to
assume the appearance of an inlet, which they bore away to examine; and,
after running three miles, they found they had shut in the line of the
coast on each side, and were impelled forward by a strong inset of tide.
Continuing their course for the gap, some back points within the entrance
soon became distinguishable,