The land here is low and level.[120] The mountains ending about five leagues from the low point, a great extent of low land is left, on which Mount Campbell is situated, about four miles from the foot of the mountains, and one from the sea coast. These mountains have a considerable elevation, as also most of the inland ones. They seemed to be composed of naked rocks, whose summits were capt with snow. Nor did the valleys appear to greater advantage. To whatever quarter we directed our glasses, nothing but sterility was to be seen.
[Footnote 120: This part of the coast seems to be what the French saw on the 5th of January 1774. Monsieur de Pagès speaks of it thus: "Nous reconnumes une nouvelle cote etendue de toute veu dans l'Est, & dans le Ouest. Les terres de cette cote étoient moins elevées que celles que nous avions veues jusques ici; elles étoient aussi d'un aspect moins rude."--De Pagès, tom. ii. p. 68.--D.]
We had scarcely finished taking the bearings at noon, before we observed low land opening off the low point just mentioned, in the direction of S.S.E., and eight miles beyond it. This new point proved to be the very eastern extremity of this land, and it was named Cape Digby. It is situated in the latitude of 49° 23' S., and in the longitude of 70° 34' E.
Between Howe's Foreland and Cape Digby, the shore forms (besides the several lesser bays and harbours) one great bay that extends several leagues to the S.W., where it seemed to lose itself in various arms running in, between the mountains. A prodigious quantity of sea-weed grows all over it, which seemed to be the same sort of weed that Sir Joseph Banks distinguished by the name of fucus giganteus. Some of this weed is of a most enormous length, though the stem is not much thicker than a man's thumb. I have mentioned, that on some of the shoals upon which it grows, we did not strike ground with a line of twenty-four fathoms. The depth of water, therefore, must have been greater. And as this weed does not grow in a perpendicular direction, but makes a very acute angle with the bottom, and much of it afterward spreads many fathoms on the surface of the sea, I am well warranted to say, that some of it grows to the length of sixty fathoms and upward.
At one o'clock (having run two leagues upon a S.E. 1/2 E. course, from noon) we sounded, and found eighteen fathoms water, and a bottom of fine sand. Seeing a small bending in the coast, on the north side of Cape Digby, I steered for it. It was my intention to anchor there, if I should find it might be done with safety, and to land on the Cape, to examine what the low land within it produced. After running in one league, we sounded again, and found thirteen fathoms; and immediately after, saw a shoal right before us, that seemed to extend off from the shore, from which we were distant about two miles. This discovery obliged us to haul off, E. by S., one league, where our depth of water increased to twenty-five fathoms. We then steered along shore, and continued in the same depth, over a bottom of fine sand, till Cape Digby bore W., two leagues distant, when we found twenty-six fathoms.
After this we did not strike ground, though we tried several times; but the ship having a good deal of way, ran the line out before the lead could reach the bottom, and being disappointed in my views both of anchoring and of landing, I would not shorten sail, but pushed forward, in order to see as much of the coast as possible before night. From Cape Digby, it trends nearly S.W. by S. for about four or five leagues, or to a low point, to which, in honour of her majesty, I gave the name of Point Charlotte, and it is the southernmost on the low coast.
Six leagues from Cape Digby, in the direction of S.S.W. 1/2 W., is a pretty high projecting point, which was called Prince of Wales's Foreland; and six leagues beyond that, in the same direction, and in the latitude of 49° 54' S., and the longitude of 70 13' E., is the most southerly point of the whole coast, which I distinguished by the name of Cape George, in honour of his majesty.
Between Point Charlotte and Prince of Wales's Foreland, where the country to the S.W. began again to be hilly, is a deep inlet, which was called Royal Sound. It runs in W. quite to the foot of the mountains which bound it on the S.W., as the low land before-mentioned does on the N. There are islands lying in the entrance, and others higher up, as far as we could distinguish. As we advanced to the S. we observed, on the S.W. side of Prince of Wales's Foreland, another inlet into Royal Sound; and it then appeared, that the foreland was the E. point of a large island lying in the mouth of it. There are several small islands in this inlet; and one about a league to the southward of Prince of Wales's Foreland.
All the land on the S.W. side of Royal Sound, quite to Cape George, is composed of elevated hills, that rise directly from the sea, one behind another, to a considerable height. Most of the summits were capt with snow, and they appeared as naked and barren as any we had seen. The smallest vestige of a tree or shrub was not discoverable, either inland or on the coast; and, I think, I may venture to pronounce that the country produces none. The low land about Cape Digby, when examined through our glasses, resembled the rest of the low land we had before met with; that is, it appeared to be partly naked and partly covered with a green turf, a description of which shall be given in its proper place. The shore is composed of sandy beaches, on which were many penguins, and other oceanic birds; and an immense number of shags kept perpetually flying about the ships as we sailed along.
Being desirous of getting the length of Cape George, to be assured whether or no it was the most southerly point of the whole land, I continued to stretch to the S. under all the sail we could carry, till half an hour past seven o'clock, when, seeing no likelihood of accomplishing my design, as the wind had by this time shifted to W.S.W., the very direction in which we wanted to go, I took the advantage of the shifting of the wind, and stood away from the coast.