to * to us to "be of the fame fort; and are, in my opinion, very
-— —i improperly called lions 5 for I could not fee any grounds for
ueldayj7. . _ the companion.
Here were feveral flocks of penguins, the largeft I ever
faw; fome, which we brought on board, weighed from
twenty-nine to thirty-eight pounds. It appears by Bougainville’s
account of the animals of Falkland Iflands, that this
penguin is there; and I think it is very well defcribed by
him under the name of Firft Clafs of Penguins j\ The oceanic
birds were albatrofles, common gulls, and that fort which I
call Port Egmont hens, terns, fhags, divers, the new white
bird, and a fmall bird like thofe of the Cape of Good Hope
called yellow birds; which, having Ihot two, we found
moft delicious food,
All the land birds we faw confided of a few fmall larks ;
nor did we meet with any quadrupeds. Mr. Forfter indeed
obferved fome dung, which he judged to come from a fox,
or fome fuch animal. The lands, or rather rocks, bordering
on the fea-coaft were not covered with fnow like the inland
parts ; but all the vegetation we could fee on the clear
places was the grafs above mentioned. The rocks feemed
to contain iron. Having made the above obfervations, we
fet out for the fhip, and got on board a little after twelve
o’clock, with a quantity of feals and penguins, an acceptable
prefent to the crew.
It mull not, however, be underftood that we were in want
of provifions; we had yet plenty o f every kind; and fince we
had been on this coaft, I had ordered, in addition to the common
allowance, wheat to be boiled every morning for break-
fall ; but any kind of frelh meat was preferred by moll on
board to fait. For my own part, I was now for the firft
f See Bougainville, Englilh Tranflatibn, p. 64,
time.
time, heartily tired of fait meat of every kind ; and though
the flelh of the penguins could fcarcely vie with bullock’s Hgg-r-'
liver, its being frelh was fufficient to make it go down. I
called the bay we had been in, Pofieflion Bay. It is fituated
in the latitude of 540 5' South, longitude 370 18' Weft, and
eleven leagues to the Eaft of Cape North. A few miles to the
Weft of Pofieffion Bay, between it and Cape Buller, lies the
Bay of I f le s fo named on account of feveral fmall illes lying
in and before it.
As foon as the boat was hoifled in, we made fail aiong the
coaft to the Eaft with a fine breeze at W. S. W. From Cape
Buller, the direction erf the coaft is S. 7%° 30' Kail, for the
fpace of eleven or twelve leagues, to a projefting point-
which obtained the name of Cape Saunders, Beyond this-
Cape, is a pretty large bay, which I named Cumberland
Bay. In feveral parts in the bottom of it, as alfo in fome
others of lefs extent, lying between Cape Saunders and Pof-
feflion Bay, were vaft tracks of frozen fnow, or ice not yet
broken loofe. At eight o’clock, being juft pall Cumberland
Bay, and falling little wind, we hauled off the coaft, from
which we were diftant about four miles, and found one
hundred and ten fathoms water.
We had variable light airs and calms till fix o’clock the Wudncf. it’.-
next morning, when the wind fixed at North and blew a
' gentle breeze ; but it lafted no longer than ten o’clock, when
it fell almoft to a calm. A t noon obferved in latitude 540 30'
South, being then about two or three leagues from the coaft,
which extended from N. 590 W. to S. M Weft. The land in
this laft direction was an jfle, which feemed to be the extremity
of the coaft to the Eaft. The neareft land to us being
a projecting point which terminated in a round hillock.,
' ‘ ' ,, . wasy