to be so, as far as N. 60 deg.  W. These bearings, but particularly the last, seemed to show a strong current to the westward, for neither Mr. Bass nor myself could believe, that the hills at the back of the Long Beach were sufficiently elevated to be seen beyond fifteen leagues; I therefore took four sets of distances, of stars east and west of the moon, which placed us, an hour and a half after sunset, in longitude 149 deg. 13’ east, agreeing nearly with the dead reckoning.  The land, if it really were such, was consequently twenty-five or more leagues off; and if the bearing of N. 60 deg.  W. were not a mistake, it must have been thirty leagues distant in that direction.  This supposed land was visible all the afternoon; but it might possibly have been the dense clouds hanging over the hills at the back of the Long Beach, and not the land itself.

Our course to the south-westward was continued all night; but the wind having veered to W. S. W. at daybreak of the 16th, the sloop was then put on the northern tack.  No land was visible in any direction; nor was there any at noon, when the observed latitude was 38 deg. 42’.  The wind veered round by the south until it fixed itself at east; and when the day broke, on the 17th, the signal was made to the Nautilus, and we bore away S.W. by W. until noon.  The latitude was then 39 deg. 11’ south, and we judged ourselves to be nearly in the meridian of the Sisters; the weather was tolerably fine, and had been so all the morning, yet no land was any where to be seen; and I therefore concluded, that none could lie in or near the meridian of these islands, and be in the latitude of 39 deg..

The course steered at noon was west; but in half an hour it was altered for high irregular land which came in sight to the south-westward, and proved to be the largest of the two clusters which I had discovered when in the Francis, and named Kent’s Groups.  We sounded in 30 fathoms, but lost the lead, the sole deep-sea line with which we had been furnished, proving to be totally rotten.  After running twenty miles, assisted by a flood tide, we came up with the group at four o’clock, and steered through the channel by which the principal islands are separated.  It is about three miles long, and a full mile in width; is free from danger, and so deep, that our hand line could not reach the bottom.  There are two sandy coves on the east, and one on the west side of the channel, where small vessels might find shelter, if there were any inducement to visit these steep, barren, granitic masses of rock.  Above the cliffs we could occasionally perceive a brown-looking vegetation of brush wood, and here and there a few starved gum trees; but there was neither bird nor quadruped to enliven the dreary scene.* The principal island of the small, western group, opened at S. 68 deg.  W., on clearing the channel; and we then hauled the wind to the southward, for Furneaux’s Islands, that the Nautilus might no longer be detained from her sealing business.