A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15: Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present TimeKerr, Robert
History
A General History and Collection of Voyages and Travels — Volume 15: Forming A Complete History Of The Origin And Progress Of Navigation, Discovery, And Commerce, By Sea And Land, From The Earliest Ages To The Present Time
Kerr, Robert
Voyages and travels
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.
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