17

1798             marked in the sketch. We stopped at the south west end of Clarkes Island,
February       and took angles as before, as also from a high rock on the south west end. From this eminence, the southern land seemed to be very extensive. To the westward, there are some small patches of land like islands; and the same conspicuous round hill (Mount Chappelle) which had borne due west through the channel, now shewed itself on the land at the back of them, which likewise only appeared at intervals. Was it not for the remarkable distinction of having seen no fire or smoke upon the large island, and the contrary on the southern land; I should have thought it probable, that they joined at a greater distance forming a deep sound. It may be observed that we saw no fires or smoke, or traces of any but what we could account for (many of the islands, from the long beach to this southern land): it is therefore probable that the islands are uninhabited; and the seals, Mount-Pitt birds, penguins and geese by which they are frequented, seems to indicate, that they have been seldom or never visited. Neither did we find ten square feet of ground fit for cultivation on any that we landed upon; they are beds of granite, mostly covered with sand, which, in general, is overrun with impenetrable brush; and its depressed, creeping form, in the parts exposed to the southward & westward, sufficiently indicates the violence and generality of the winds from those quarters, at some times of the year.
    On Wednesday afternoon of the 22^nd we returned on board the