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 deg. 1’ south.

Longitude of the point, deduced from twenty-two sets of distances (see Table III of the Appendix to this volume) is 132 deg. 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 deg. 27’ east.

The variation observed upon the binnacle, with the ship’s head east-south-east, was 3 deg. 11’ west by the surveying compass; and in the offing, with the head north-north-east, it was 1 deg. 41’ west.  These, corrected, will be 0 deg. 19’ and 0 deg. 30’; and therefore the variation allowed upon the bearings on shore was 0 deg. 25’ west.

The wind was at south-east-by-south at one in the afternoon, when the anchor was weighed to beat out of the bay.  At half past five we were three miles from a cliffy head which had been taken for an island at the anchorage, and set at N 77 deg.  E. The shore forms a small bight on the east side of this head, and then stretches south-south-eastward in a sandy beach, with a ridge of barren land behind.  At sunset we passed to windward of Point Fowler, and stood off to sea for the night.

[SOUTH COAST. NUYTS’ ARCHIPELAGO.]

SATURDAY 30 JANUARY 1802

Cape Nuyts bore north, two or three leagues, soon after daylight, and the wind was then at east; but as the day advanced it veered to the south-east, and permitted us to make a stretch toward the furthest land.  At five in the evening we tacked near some low, whitish cliffs, which had been seen from the mast head when in Fowler’s Bay; they were two or three miles off, and the furthest land visible from the deck bore S. 63 deg.  E. at no great distance.  The coast here is broken into sandy beaches and small, cliffy points, and the same ridge of barren land runs behind it, but the elevation is not great.

SUNDAY 31 JANUARY 1802