found the weather much more hazy than it had been the day before.  About noon the pinnace returned, having been as far as the reef, and found between fifteen and twenty-eight fathom of water; but it blew so hard that the mate did not dare to venture into one of the channels, which he said appeared to him to be very narrow:  This however did not discourage me, for I judged, from his description of the place he had been at, that he had seen it to disadvantage.  While I was busy in my survey, Mr Banks was attentive to his favourite pursuit, and picked up several plants which he had not before seen.  We found the island, which is visible at twelve leagues distance, to be about eight leagues in circumference, and in general very rocky and barren.  On the north-west side, however, there are some sandy bays, and some low land, which is covered with long thin grass, and trees of the same kind with those upon the main:  This part also abounded with lizards of a very large size, some of which we took.  We found also fresh water in two places:  One was a running stream, but that was a little brackish where I tasted it, which was close to the sea; the other was a standing pool, close behind the sandy beach, and this was perfectly sweet and good.  Notwithstanding the distance of this island from the main, we saw, to our great surprise, that it was sometimes visited by the natives; for we found seven or eight frames of their huts, and vast heaps of shells, the fish of which we supposed had been their food.  We observed that all these huts were built upon eminences, and entirely exposed to the S.E. contrary to those which we had seen upon the main; for they were all built either upon the side of a hill, or under some bushes, which afforded them shelter from the wind.  From these huts, and their situation, we concluded that at some seasons of the year the weather here is invariably calm and fine; for the inhabitants have no boat which can navigate the sea to so great a distance, in such weather as we had from the time of our first coming upon the coast.  As we saw no animals upon this place but lizards, I called it Lizard Island; the other two high islands, which lie at the distance of four or five miles from it, are comparatively small; and near them lie three others smaller still, and low, with several shoals or reefs, especially to the S.E.  There is, however, a clear passage from Cape Flattery to these islands, and even quite to the outward reefs, leaving Lizard Island to the N.W. and the others to the S.E.

At two in the afternoon, there being no hope of clear weather, we set out from Lizard Island to return to the ship, and in our way landed upon the low sandy island with trees upon it, which we had remarked in our going out.  Upon this island we saw an incredible number of birds, chiefly sea-fowl:  We found also the nest of an eagle with young ones, which we killed; and the nest of some other bird, we knew not what, of a most enormous size; it was built with sticks upon the ground, and was no less than six-and-twenty feet in circumference, and two feet eight inches high.  We found also that this place had been visited by the Indians, probably to eat turtle, many of which we saw upon the island, and a great number of their shells, piled one upon another in different places.