DAMAGE TO OUR PROVISIONS.

March 8.

As soon as we had sufficient light for the purpose I proceeded to examine the stores.  The flour was not very good at starting; it had been packed in small bags, that being the most convenient form to have it in both for stowing and transporting it on men’s shoulders; and in the hurricane which we had experienced on Dorre Island this flour had got thoroughly soaked:  from that period to the present time it had been constantly wet with salt water; last night’s adventures completed its disasters and it was now quite spoilt and an unwholesome article of food; but having nothing else to eat we were forced to satisfy ourselves with it, and I directed it to be dried in the sun and then carefully repacked.  The wind was from the south-south-west, about half a gale, and there was such a tremendous surf on the shore that to launch the boats was impossible.  I therefore started to look for water and to explore the country.

SEARCH FOR WATER.

The point we had landed at was immediately at the base of some bare sandhills, about four hundred feet high.  These are the hills which are visible from the high land of Dorre Island on the opposite side of the bay:  it struck me that from their great height and their porous nature there was a probability of our finding water by digging, even in this apparently sandy desert; I therefore selected a spot at the foot of the highest hill, in the bare sand, and ordered a well to be opened.  Our efforts were crowned with success; the well had not been sunk more than four or five feet when we came to a coarse gravelly sand, saturated with water, which was perfectly sweet and good; and when the well was sunk about two or three feet deeper the water poured in so fast that there would have been no difficulty in watering a ship at this point.

APPEARANCE OF A LAKE.  EXAMINATION OF IT.

Whilst the men were engaged in filling the water kegs I ascended the highest sandhill, the summit of which was not distant more than a mile from the well.  When I gained this a most splendid sight burst upon my view:  to the westward stretched the boundless sea, lashed by the wind into white and curling waves; whilst to the east of me lay a clear calm unruffled lake, studded with little islands.  To the north or north-east I could, even with a good telescope, see no limits to this lake, and, with the exception of the numerous beautiful islands with which it was studded, I could, even from the commanding position which I occupied, distinguish nothing like rising land anywhere between north by east and south-east.  The lake had a glassy and fairy-like appearance, and I sat down alone on the lofty eminence to contemplate this great water which the eye of European now for the first time rested on.  I looked seaward, and it appeared as if nature had heaped up the narrow and lofty sandy barrier on which I stood to shut out from the eyes of man the lovely and fairy-like land which lay beyond it.