on
and useful also, since it has brought to light a well-sheltered cove
affording wood and water, and two other tolerable anchorages at which
some refreshments may be procured, and at one, quantities of salt in the
summer season.

(Atlas, Plate III.)

From the archipelago eastward the examination of the coast was prosecuted
by D'Entrecasteaux with much care, and with some trifling exceptions very
closely; but as far as the 127th degree of longitude from Greenwich no
soundings were given. These have been supplied, and a more minute
description given of the coast. At the 129th degree the French ships seem
to have been closer in with the land than was the Investigator; and it
would appear by the track that they were also closer at the 30th, and at
the head of the Great Bight, but these last are not corroborated by the
soundings. From thence to the bay in which we anchored on the 28th, the
Dutch chart of 1627 was the sole authority; and making allowances for the
state of navigation at that time, it is as correct in form as could
reasonably have been expected.

The latitudes and longitudes of the points and islands along the coast
have been either verified or corrected, for there are commonly some
differences between any longitudes and those of Vancouver and
D'Entrecasteaux. The observations by which certain places, taken as fixed
points, are settled in longitude, are mentioned at those places, as also
are the corrections applied to the time-keepers for laying down the
intermediate parts; and both are more particularly specified in the
Appendix to this volume.

Monsieur _Beautemps Beaupre_, geographical engineer on board La
Recherche, was the constructor of the French charts; and they must be
allowed to do him great credit. Perhaps no chart of a coast so little
known as this was will bear a comparison with its original better than
those of M. Beaupre. That the Plates II and III in the accompanying
Atlas, are offered as being more full and somewhat more correct, does
neither arise from a wish to depreciate those of my predecessor in the
investigation, nor from an assumption of superior merit; there is,
indeed, very little due to any superiority they may be found to possess;
but there would be room for reproach if, after having followed with an
outline of his chart in my hand, improvements should not have been made
in all or some of those parts where circumstances had not before admitted
a close examination.

CHAPTER V.