3 small kangaroos. At 8 P.M. as usual set a
third watch with an officer. A.M. I went over to Harrington (or East)
Cove,* (* Named after Captain Campbell's ship the Harrington to whose
presence in these waters Murray often refers.) measured a base line and
surveyed the western side of this sound. I also overhauled every part of
the Rocks all round the cove and without it examined every drain that I
fell in with and although I saw at different parts of the under rocks and
in holes perhaps enough water to keep a few men alive yet no quantity
that could be much use to a ship's company. In East Cove there is a good
anchorage all over it for ships of any size, and they may exactly choose
what water to be in from 3 fathoms close in to ye beach to 14 in ye mouth
of it. I sounded every part of it and ye bottom is sand with small stones
and shells much covered with black seaweed that might at first be thought
to be rocks...West Cove is almost the same...East Cove is ye best to lie
in as it entirely shuts in sea gates and moreover has little ground swell
to which both other coves are subject. With respect to the tide in the
coves little can be perceived, the perpendicular rise at full moon may be
10 or 11 feet, with us it sometimes was 8 or 9 feet, and that in ye
course of ye hour...At all times it is imprudent to carry sail on a boat
in this sound; the puffs come so violent that before anybody could take
in her sail she would to a certainty be overset; even ships, in my
opinion, would do well before they enter this sound to take in all their
small sails and keep all hands at the braces fore and aft as well as
hands by the top-sail halyards, and it is necessary to handle the yards
quick otherwise a large vessel will be sure to rub sides with ye rocks if
it has blown fresh outside all day...The kangaroo seems to be most
plentiful at this time in the north-eastern cove owing, I fancy, to their
being less disturbed there than in the other coves, but with good dogs
and a little trouble they may be had on the hills in the vicinity of
either cove. Wood is plentiful and no trouble in getting it.

"Monday, 30th November. Hard gales, hazy weather with rain throughout.
The soil throughout this sound is nothing but sand a good way up the
hills and after that you chiefly find rocks with here and there a shott
of grass. The hills are covered very thick with brushwood, a great part
of which is decayed and rotten and renders it a business of labo