From this inscription, it is clear, that we were not the first Europeans who had been in this harbour. I supposed it to be left by Monsieur de Boisguehenneu, who went on shore in a boat, on the 13th of February, 1772, the same day that Monsieur de Kerguelen discovered this land; as appears by a note in the French chart of the southern hemisphere, published the following year.[126] As a memorial of our having been in this harbour, I wrote on the other side of the parchment, _Naves Resolution et Discovery de Rege Magnæ Britanniæ, Decembris, 1776_. I then put it again into a bottle, together with a silver two-penny piece of 1772; and having covered the mouth of the bottle with a leaden cap, I placed it, the next morning, in a pile of stones erected for the purpose, upon a little eminence on the north shore of the harbour, and near to the place where it was first found; in which position it cannot escape the notice of any European, whom chance or design may bring into this port. Here I displayed the British flag, and named the place _Christmas Harbour_, from our having arrived in it on that festival. It is the first, or northernmost inlet that we meet with on the south-east side of Cape St. Louis[127], which forms the north side of the harbour, and is also the northern point of this land. The situation alone is sufficient to distinguish it from any of the other inlets; and, to make it more remarkable, its south point terminates in a high rock, which is perforated quite through, so as to appear like the arch of a bridge. We saw none like this upon the whole coast.[128] The harbour has another distinguishing mark within, from a single stone or rock, of a vast size, which lies on the top of a hill on the south side, near its bottom; and opposite this, on the north side, there is another hill, much like it, but smaller. There is a small beach at its bottom, where we commonly landed; and, behind it, some gently rising ground, on the top of which is a large pool of fresh water. The land on both sides of the inlet is high, and it runs in west, and W. N. W., about two miles. Its breadth is one mile and a quarter, for more than half its length; above which, it is only half a mile. The depth of water, which is forty-five fathoms at the entrance, varies, as we proceed farther in, from thirty to five and four fathoms, as marked upon the plan. The shores are steep; and the bottom is every where a fine dark sand, except in some places close to the shore, where there are beds of sea-weed, which always grows on rocky ground. The head of the harbour lies open only to two points of the compass; and even these are covered by islands in the offing, so that no sea can fall in to hurt a ship. The appearances on shore confirmed this; for we found grass growing close to high-water mark, which is a sure sign of a pacific harbour.[129] It is