Fowler's Bay.
Departure from thence.
Arrival at the Isles of St. Francis.
Correspondence between the winds and the marine barometer.
Examination of the other parts of Nuyts' Archipelago, and of the main coast.
The Isles of St Peter.
Return to St. Francis.
General remarks on Nuyts' Archipelago.
Identification of the islands in the Dutch chart.
THURSDAY 28 JANUARY 1802
(Atlas, Plate IV.)
The bay in which we anchored on the evening of January 28, at the extremity of the before known south coast of Terra Australis, was named FOWLER'S BAY, after my first lieutenant; and the low, cliffy point which shelters it from southern winds and, not improbably, is the furthest point (marked B) in the Dutch chart, was called POINT FOWLER. The botanical gentlemen landed early on the following morning [FRIDAY 29 JANUARY 1802] to examine the productions of the country, and I went on shore to take observations and bearings, and to search for fresh water.
The cliffs and rocks of Point Fowler are calcareous, and connected with the main land by a low, sandy isthmus of half a mile broad. Many traces of inhabitants were found, and amongst others, some decayed spears; but no huts were seen, nor anything to indicate that men had been here lately. Upon the beach were the foot marks of dogs, and some of the emu or cassowary. I found in a hole of the low cliffs one of those large nests which have before been mentioned, but it contained nothing, and had been long abandoned.
No fresh water was discovered round the shores of the bay, nor was there any wood large enough for fuel nearer than the brow of a hill two or three miles off. Two teal were shot on the beach, whence it seemed probable that some lake or pond of fresh water was not far distant; a sea-pie and a gull were also shot, and a few small fish caught alongside. These constituted everything like refreshment obtained here, and the botanists found the scantiness of plants equal to that of the other productions; so that there was no inducement to remain longer.
Fowler's Bay, however, may be useful to a ship in want of a place of shelter. It is open to the three points of the compass between south-east-by-south and east-south-east; and it was evident, from plants growing close to the water side, that a swell capable of injuring a vessel at anchor was seldom if ever thrown into it.
The latitude of the east extremity of Point Fowler is 32° 1' south.
Longitude of the point, deduced from twenty-two sets of distances (see [Table III] of the Appendix to this volume) is 132° 30'; but that given by time keepers with accelerated rates and supplemental correction, as explained at the end of Chap. VI, and in the Appendix, is preferred, and is 132° 27' east.
The variation observed upon the binnacle, with the ship's head east-south-east, was 3° 11' west by the surveying compass; and in the offing, with the head north-north-east, it was 1° 41' west. These, corrected, will be 0° 19' and 0° 30'; and therefore the variation allowed upon the bearings on shore was 0° 25' west.