Page:A voyage round the world, in His Britannic Majesty's sloop, Resolution, commanded by Capt. James Cook, during the years 1772, 3, 4, and 5 (IA b30413849 0001).pdf/153

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD.
123

1773.
March.

CHAP.V.

Stay at Dusky Bay; description of it, and account of our transactions there.

After an interval of one hundred and twenty-two days, and a run of above three thousand five hundred leagues, out of sight of land, we entered Dusky Bay on the 26th of March about noon.Friday 26. This bay is situated a little to the northward of Cape West, and captain Cook, in his voyage in the Endeavour, had discovered and named it without entering into it[1]. The soundings gave about 40 fathoms in the entrance, but as we advanced, we had no ground with 60, and therefore were obliged to push on farther. The weather was delightfully fair, and genially warm, when compared to what we had lately experienced; and we glided along by insensible degrees, wafted by light airs, past numerous rocky islands, each of which was covered with wood and shrubberies, where numerous evergreens were sweetly contrasted and mingled with the various shades of autumnal yellow. Flocks of aquatic birds enlivened the rocky shores, and the whole country resounded with the wild notes of the feathered
  1. See Hawkesworth's compilation, vol. III. p. 424.

tribe.