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 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.
At this time Cape George bore S. 53° W. distant about seven leagues. A
small island that lies off the pitch of the cape was the only land we
could see to the south of it; and we were farther confirmed that there
was no more in that quarter by a S.W. swell which we met as soon as we
brought the cape to bear in this direction.
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