THE WEST END OF THE STRAIT

The south-west wind died away in the night; and at six next morning,
Dec. 9, we got under way with a light air at south-east. After rounding
the north-east point of the three-hummock land, our course westward was
pursued along its north side.

A large flock of gannets was observed at daylight, to issue out of the
Great Bight to the southward; and they were followed by such a number of
the sooty petrels as we had never seen equalled. There was a stream of
from fifty to eighty yards in depth, and of three hundred yards or more
in breadth; the birds were not scattered, but flying as compactly as a
free movement of their wings seemed to allow; and during a full hour and
a half, this stream of petrels continued to pass without interruption,
at a rate little inferior to the swiftness of the pigeon. On the lowest
computation, I think the number could not have been less than a hundred
millions; and we were thence led to believe that there must be, in the
large bight, one or more uninhabited islands of considerable size.

From the north-east point of the three-hummock land, the shore trended
W. 1° N. three miles; then S. 39° W. four miles, to a rocky point
forming the south-west extremity of what was then ascertained to be
Three-hummock Island. The channel which separates it from the land to
the west is, at least, two miles in width, and is deep; so that it was
difficult to conjecture how the Indians were able to get over to the
island. It was almost certain that they had no canoes at Port Dalrymple,
nor any means of reaching islands lying not more than two cable lengths
from the shore; and it therefore seemed improbable that they should
possess canoes here. The small size of Three-hummock Island rendered