Refuge Cove, lying seven miles South 1/4 West from Rabbit Island, was our next anchorage. It was so named from its being the only place a vessel can find shelter in from the eastward on this side of the Promontory. Of this we ourselves felt the benefit; for although in the middle of June east winds prevailed the first few days we stayed there, with thick hazy weather, whilst at Rabbit Island we had constant westerly gales with a great deal of hail and sleet. This small cove, being only a cable wide at the entrance may be recognized by Kersop Peak, which rises over the south part, and from its lying between Cape Wellington and Horn Point,* and also from its being the first sandy beach that opens north of the former.
(*Footnote. This projection has two pointed hummocks on it resembling horns.)
Such of us as had been in Tierra del Fuego were particularly struck with the resemblance of the scenery in Refuge Cove; the smooth quiet sand beaches, and dense forests reaching the water's edge, the mist-capped hills, and the gusts that swept down the valleys and roared through the rigging, forcibly recalled to our recollection that region of storms.
We found a whaling establishment in the south-east corner,* and the houses for the boats and their crews formed quite a little village. The person in charge, with one or two others, remains during the summer. These people had a novel safeguard against the attacks of the natives: a horrible looking figure, dressed so as to represent the evil spirit, of which the Australian aborigines are so much afraid, was placed in a conspicuous place; but whether it would have had the desired effect was not proved, as the natives had never been seen in those parts. There can, indeed, be little to tempt them to wander thither; for there are neither kangaroos nor wallabies, and but few birds. Among the most curious of those belonging to the land, is a kind of finch, with a black head, yellow beak, a dark brown back, and dirty white belly; across the wings and arching over the back, at the stump of the tail, was a stripe of white.
(*Footnote. Our observations made this spot in latitude 39 degrees 02 minutes 30 seconds South, and longitude 4 degrees 44 minutes 45 seconds West of Sydney. High-water on the full and change of the moon, takes place at 12 hours 5 minutes when the tide rises eight feet; a mile in the offing the northern and ebb stream, which runs from one to two knots, begins at 11 hours 40 minutes. Past the south end of the promontory the same stream sweeps round from the westward, sometimes at the rate of two knots and a half.)
WATERLOO BAY.
Cape Wellington, the eastern projection of the Promontory, forms the north point of Waterloo Bay, which is wide and spacious. These names were suggested by the fact that the day of our anchoring there was the anniversary of one of the greatest triumphs ever achieved by British arms. At the head of the bay, lies the low valley, three miles in length, which stretches across the promontory and forms a very conspicuous break in the high land. On the northern side of it, the highest hill, Mount Wilson, rises abruptly until its woody crest reaches an elevation of 2350 feet. On the southern, was a ridge strewn over with immense boulders of granite, one, near where I stood, measuring eighty feet in height, and resting with such apparent insecurity, that little seemed required to send it rolling and crashing into the valley below, along which a rivulet winds, and falls into the sea at the north end of a sandy beach, forming the head of Waterloo Bay. The depth in the middle of the latter is 12 fathoms, muddy bottom; it lies four miles from the south end of the Promontory, and there is no good anchorage between.
SAIL FOR PORT DALRYMPLE.
From a small flattened sugarloaf, forming the summit of Cape Wellington, I got an angle to the Crocodile Rock,* and with others from the south-west end of the Promontory, and from the ship on passing, I determined the position of this danger most satisfactorily.
(*Footnote. This rock, in latitude 39 degrees 21 minutes 30 seconds South, and longitude 4 degrees 41 minutes 45 seconds West of Sydney, lies in a line midway between the western extremities of Curtis and Rodondo Islands, nearly nine miles from each. It is a smooth round-topped granite boulder, just protruding above the surface; and in fine weather the sea runs over it without breaking. The depth being 43 fathoms close to it, if the waters of the Strait were drawn off the shape of it would be that of a column nearly 260 feet high.)