Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 1.djvu/140

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66
KERGUELEN ISLAND
[Chap. IV.
1840

the course of the same month we perceived the right or black whale to set into the different bays and harbours in great quantities. Our success was commensurate to my most sanguine expectations, and we remained here until October following."

During the time (nearly eight months) they were at Winter Harbour, in lat. 49° 20′ S., and long. 69° 24′ E., he explored not less than fifty inlets or coves in the boats of the Hillsborough, where ships of any tonnage might ride in perfect safety in the most tempestuous seasons. He gave names to these several harbours, and intended to have published a chart of his labours, "as" (he writes) "an unerring guide to future navigators, and to have thus discharged a duty, which is as pleasing to my own feelings as I trust it will be found important to the commercial interests of the British Empire;" but it does not appear that either the chart or the memoir was ever published.

"If bound into Hillsborough Bay, leave the islands off Christmas Harbour on the port hand, and steer S.E. by S. by compass along the land at a distance of about three or four leagues. This course will carry you between the beds of kelp and sea-weed that lie off the coast, and when you have run the distance of seventeen miles from Cape François, Howe's Foreland will bear S.W. by compass, distant seven or eight miles: at the same time a ledge of rocks may be seen from the deck bearing N.E. distant five or six miles. You may then steer South to S. by W. by compass until you have run about fifteen miles, leaving se-