In the morning of the 23d, Mr Pickersgill, Mr Gilbert, and two others, went
to the Cascade Cove, in order to ascend one of the mountains, the summit of
which they reached by two o'clock in the afternoon, as we could see by the
fire they made. In the evening they returned on board, and reported that
inland, nothing was to be seen but barren mountains, with huge craggy
precipices, disjoined by valleys, or rather chasms, frightful to behold. On
the southeast side of Cape West, four miles out at sea, they discovered a
ridge of rocks, on which the waves broke very high. I believe these rocks
to be the same we saw the evening we first fell in with the land.

Having five geese left out of those we brought from the Cape of Good Hope,
I went with them next morning to Goose Cove (named so on this account,)
where I left them. I chose this place for two reasons; first, here are no
inhabitants to disturb them; and, secondly, here being the most food, I
make no doubt but that they will breed, and may in time spread over the
whole country, and fully answer my intention in leaving them. We spent the
day shooting in and about the cove, and returned aboard about ten o'clock
in the evening. One of the party shot a white hern, which agreed exactly
with Mr Pennant's description, in his British Zoology, of the white herns
that either now are, or were formerly, in England.

The 20th was the eighth fair day we had had successively; a circumstance, I
believe, very uncommon in this place, especially at this season of the
year. This fair weather gave us an opportunity to complete our wood and
water, to overhaul the rigging, caulk the ship, and put her in a condition
for sea. Fair weather was, however, now at an end; for it began to rain
this evening, and continued without intermission till noon the next day,
when we cast off the shore fasts, hove the ship out of the creek to her
anchor, and steadied her with an hawser to the shore.