ACCOUNT OF THE ENGLISH 180 COLONY [ i 7sg.
by the mediant attrition o f their vaft waves.’ Two of the ifles, either
from this or a more fudden caufe, have fo far deviated from
their centre, that their parallel ftrata form angles of between fixteen
and eighteen degrees in one inftance, and in another between twenty
five and thirty degrees, with the horizontal line. But it is difficult
to explain, by the adtion o f water, how a large block o f the
white ftone without ftrata is caufed to overhang an almoft perpendicular
corner of one o f the iflands, which beneath that block confifts
o f the dark coloured ftone lying in ftrata.
De Witt s Ifles, (fo named, probably, by Tafman) twelve in
number, are o f various iizes. The two largeft are from three to
four milesrin circuit. Their fides are fteep, but their height is inferior
to that o f the main. The largeft is the loweft. The fmaller
ifles are little more than large lumps o f rock, o f which that named by
Captain Cook the mew ftone is the fouthernmoft. Their afpedt, like
that o f the main, befpeaks extreme fterility; but, fuperior to the
greater part o f it, they produce a continued covering o f brufh; and
upon the Hoping fides o f fome o f their gullies are a few ftinted, half
dead gum trees.
They could not account for the veftiges o f fires that appeared upon
the two inner large iflands; the innermoft in particular, which lay
at fome diftance from the neareft point o f the main, was burnt in
patches upon different parts o f it. It muff have been c lie died either
by lightning, or by the hand o f man ; but it was fo much unlike the
ufual effedts o f the former, that, with all its difficulties, they chofe
to attribute it to the latter caufe.
A great fmoke that arofe at the back o f one o f the bights ffiewed
the main to be inhabited ; but they could not fuppofe the people of
this place to be furnilhed with canoes, when thofe o f Adventure Bay,
m their neighbourhood, were unprovided with them. Nothing,
therefore, was left to their choice, but to allow that they might tranf-
port themfelves over, either upon logs o f wood, or by fwimming
J a n u a r y . ] OF NEW SOUTH WALES.
ming acrofs : and, as the moft probable reward o f fuch an exertion
would.be, the capture of birds, whilft breeding, or the feizure of
their eggs, the utility o f fpreading fires in facilitating fuch operations
is obvious.
The fouth cape may be eafily diftinguilhed from any other pro-
jedtion in its vicinity. Befides being the fouthernmoft, it is a promontory
making like' a foreland, and Hoping very gradually as it
runs towards the fea, where it ends in a perpendicular cliff.
About funfet the freffi N. W. wind died away fuddenly ; and a
ftrong fquall from the weft ward, with thunder, lightning, and
heavy rain, Toon carried them round the fouth cape, and, by dark,
brought them off what was formerly called Storm-Bay, where they
hauled to the wind with the Hoop’s head up the bay, intending, in
the morning, to proceed by this Storm-Bay paffage into the Derwent
river. *
The night was fqually, and by day light the next morning (the
14th,) it was found that the veffel had drifted acrofs the mouth o f
Storm-Bay, or more properly Storm-Bay-Paffage, Tafman’s-head,
its eaftern point, bore N. E. diftant three miles.. Being too far to
leeward to fetch up the paffage, and the gale continuing, they bore
away round Tafman’s -head, and hauled up along ihore for Adventure
Bay.
Nothing remarkable was obferved , about Tafman’ s-head, except
two fmall iflands lying off it, at the diftance of half or three quarters
o f a mile ; and clofe to them were the two conical bafaltic rocks
named by Captain Furneaux the Friars. The vegetation upon the
innermoft of the two fmall iflands had been burnt in a manner fimi-
lar to that on the De "Witt’s ifles. I f it were poffible to account for
thofe fires in any other way than by the agency of man, it would
be more fatisfadfory, than to fuppofe that people, always believed to
be without canoes, had crofted over from a rather fteep and rocky
head, to an ifland equally rocky, but more fteep.
Havini