ference, the extent of which might be about three leagues.
To this island, the latitude of which is 29° 20′ 18″ south, longitude 179° 55′ east, we gave the name of Recherche. Its figure is nearly triangular. Toward the middle the land rises to the height of about five hundred yards above the level of the sea. On the east the earth had crumbled down in a few places of no great extent, where a boat might land.
In all the perpendicular cliffs we could clearly distinguish the arrangement of the thin, parallel, and horizontal strata of a whitish, and no doubt calcareous stone, of which the island is formed. In the interior part of the island we saw considerable precipices, and there were trees to the very summit of the highest places.
There is a shoal almost close to the shore on the north-west, which extends at least six hundred yards in that direction.
Eight rocks, a few hundred yards distant from each other, stretch out into the sea for the space of a league to the east-south-east.
Between the west and north-west points, we observed a small bight, where probably very good ground would be found, and which affords complete shelter from the easterly winds.
Between the north-west and south-east pointswe
