nutes 10
seconds, and longitude 148 degrees 30 minutes 55 seconds, forms a small
peak, and is visible from Repulse Bay, as well as from the northern
extremity of the Cumberland Islands: it is four thousand five hundred and
sixty-six feet high; and the hills around it are at least from seven
hundred to a thousand feet in height.
The greater part of the water that collects from these hills probably
empties itself into Repulse and Edgecumbe Bays, or it may be distributed
in lagoons upon the low land that separates them.
At the back of Point Slade there is a high mountainous range extending
without interruption to the westward of Mount Upstart. In latitude 21
degrees 1 1/2 minutes, and longitude 148 degrees 36 3/4 minutes is a
high-rounded summit, which is visible at the distance of twenty leagues:
between this range, which is at the distance of from five to seven
leagues from the sea, and the coast, are several ridges gradually
lowering in altitude as they approach the shore. In the neighbourhood of
Repulse Bay, this mountainous range recedes, and has a considerable track
of low land at its base, which is possibly a rich country: from the
height of the hills, it must be well watered.
CAPE GLOUCESTER. The point of land that Captain Cook took originally for
the cape, is an island of about five miles long and two broad, separated
from the true Cape Gloucester by a strait, a mile and a half wide. The
island is called Gloucester Island; its summit at the north end is in
latitude 19 degrees 57 minutes 24 seconds, longitude 148 degrees 23
minutes 38 seconds: it is eighteen hundred and seventy-four feet high,
and its summit is a ridge of peaks: its shores are rocky and steep; and,
although the sides of the hills are wooded, yet it has a sombre and heavy
appearance, and, at least, does not look fertile. The cape, in latitude
20 degrees 1 minute 50 seconds, and longitude 148 degrees 26 minutes 15
seconds, is the extremity of the mountainous range that extends off Mount
Dryander. The variation observed off the island was 7 degrees 11 minutes
East.
EDGECUMBE BAY is a deep indentation of the land, the shores of which are
very low: its extent was not ascertained, but, by the bearings of some
land at the bottom, it is seventeen miles deep; and its greatest breadth,
at the mouth, is about fourteen miles. It affords excellent shelter; and
between Middle Island (a small rocky islet of a mile and half in extent)
and Gloucester Island
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