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their dogs, and all the furniture. Seeing us proceed to the
southward, with the apparent intention of sailing down the
inlet, they motioned to us to go to the north, repeatedly calling
ou t ‘ Sherroo, sherroo,’ and pointing to the n o rthw a rd ; ivhich
Ave th o u g h t intimated th a t there Avas no passage in the direction
Ave Avere taking.
A t noon, I landed to observe the latitude, and take bearings
doAvn the Sound to the S .F ., at the bottom of Avhich Avas a
hill, standing by itself, as it were, in mid-cliannel. T h e view
certainly excited hopes of its being a ch an n e l; and as Ave had
begun to calculate upon reaching Nassau Bay in a few days,
Ave named this hill, Mount Hope.
T h e point on Avhich we landed was a t the foot of a high
snoAv-capped hill, called by us Mo u n t Seymour; Avhence, had
not the Indians been near, I should have taken healings.
W e sailed south-eastAvard, close to the south shore, u n til the
evening; when from the summit o f some hills, about three
h un d red feet above the sea, we had a view doAvn the Sound,
Avhich almost convinced us it would prove to be a channel.
T h e rock a t this place differed from any we had seen in the
Strait. T h e mountains are high, and evidently of clay-slate ;
b u t the point, near Avhich we anchored, is a mass of h a rd, and
very quartzose sand-stone, much resembling the old red sandstone
formation o f F u ro p e , and precisely like the rock of Goul-
b u rn Islan d , on the north coast of New Holland.*
T h e following morning (23d), we proceeded towards Mount
Hope, Avhile running down to Avhich some squalls passed over,
clouding the south shore, and as we passed P a rry H a rb o u r it
bore so much the appearance o f a channel, th a t we stood into
i t ; b u t the clouds clearing aAvay soon exposed the bottom to
o u r view, Avhere there seemed to be two arms or inlets. In the
south-eastern arm, the shoreswere covered with thick ice (like the
bottom of Ainsworth H a rb o u r, to the west of P a rry Ha rb o u r,
where an immense glacier slopes down to the water’s edge). T h e
south-Avest arm appeared to be well sheltered, and if it affords
a moderate depth of Avater, would be an excellent harbour.
• King’s ‘ Australia,’ vol. i. p. 70; also v e l.il. pp. 573, 582, and 613.
After satisfying ourselves that there was no channel here, Ave
bore up on our original course; but, before long, found ourselves
Avithin tAvo miles of the bottom of the Sound; which is
shallow, and appears to receive two rivers. T h e great quantity
of ice water, Avhich mingles here Avith the sea, changed its
colour to so pale a blue, that Ave thought ourselves in fresh
Avater.
Mount Hope proved to be an isolated mass of hills, ly in g
like the rest N .W . and S .F ., having I o a v land to the southwai-d,
over which nothing Avas visible except one hill, th irty or forty
miles distant, covered Avith snoAV, to which the rays of the sun
gave the appearance o f a sheet o f gold. Finding ourselves
embayed, Ave hastened out o f the scrape, and, after beating for
some hours, anchored in P a rry H arbour.
Ou r entrance into a little cove in P a rry H a rb o u r disturbed
a quantity of ducks, steamers, shags, and geese. T h e ir numbers
shoAved th at Indians had not lately visited it.
Next day we reached AinsAvorth H a rb o u r, Avhich is o f the
same character as P a rry H a rb o u r, and affords perfect security
for small vessels; by dint of sweeping, we reached a secure
anchorage in a cove a t the south-east corner.
T h e bottom of the p o rt is formed, as I before said, by an
immense glacier, from Avhich, d u rin g the night, large masses
broke off and fell into the sea with a loud crash,* th u s explaining
the nocturnal noises Ave had often heard a t P o rt Famine,
and which a t the time were th ought to arise from the eruption
o f volcanoes. Such were also, probably, the sounds heard by
the Spanish officers d u rin g th eir exploration o f the Straits,
Avhilst in the p o rt o f Santa Monica, Avhere they had taken
refuge from a violent gale of Avind.f
• At high tide the sea-water undermines, by thawing, large masses of
ice, which, when the tide falls, want support, and, consequently, break
off, bringing after them huge fragments of the glacier, and falling into
the still basin with a noise like thunder.
t “ En los dias 24, y 25, oimos un ruido sordo, y de co rta duración,
que, por el pronto, nos pareció trueno ; pero habiendo reflexionado, nos
inclinamos á creer que fué efecto de alguna explosion subterránea,
formado