The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First VoyageCook, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. II. Being the Second of the First Voyage
Cook, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
point of Moreton’s Bay: its latitude is 26° 56ʹ, and its longitude is
206° 28ʹ. From Cape Moreton the land trends away west, farther than can
be seen, for there is a small space, where at this time no land is
visible; and some on board having also observed that the sea looked
paler than usual, were of opinion that the bottom of Moreton’s Bay
opened into a river. We had here thirty-four fathom water, and a fine
sandy bottom: this alone would have produced the change that had been
observed in the colour of the water; and it was by no means necessary to
suppose a river to account for the land at the bottom of the bay not
being visible; for supposing the land there to be as low as we knew it
to be in a hundred other parts of the coast, it would have been
impossible to see it from the station of the ship; however, if any
future navigator should be disposed to determine the question, whether
there is or is not a river in this place, which the wind would not
permit us to do, the situation may always be found by three hills which
lie to the northward of it, in the latitude of 26° 53ʹ. These hills lie
but a little way inland, and not far from each other: they are
remarkable for the singular form of their elevation, which very much
resembles a glass-house, and for which reason I called them the
GLASS-HOUSES. The northernmost of the three is the highest and largest:
there are also several other peaked hills inland to the northward of
these, but they are not nearly so remarkable. At noon our latitude was,
by observation, 26° 28ʹ S., which was ten miles to the northward of the
log, a circumstance which had never before happened upon this coast; our
longitude was 206° 46ʹ. At this time we were between two and three
leagues from the land, and had twenty-four fathom water. A low bluff
point, which was the south head of a sandy bay, bore N. 62 W., distant
three leagues, and the northernmost point of land in sight bore N. ¼ E.
This day we saw smoke in several places, and some at a considerable
distance inland.
In steering along the shore at the distance of two leagues, our
soundings were from twenty-four to thirty-two fathom, with a sandy
bottom. At six in the evening the northernmost point of the land bore N.
¼ W., distant four leagues; at ten it bore N. W. by W. ½ W., and as we
had seen no land to the northward of it, we brought to, not well knowing
which way to steer.
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