Page:Narrative of a Voyage around the World - 1843.djvu/161

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1837.]
FRIENDLY COVE.
107

Two guns is the customary signal; and boats will come out to assist, the pilot coming off in one of them.

There are many rocks nearly even with the water's edge, which by daylight may easily be avoided, but the distinct channels are not easily discerned by a stranger, even when assisted by the Russian chart.

The late strong breezes had raised a heavy westerly swell, which caused us to make very poor work of it, and agitated our chronometers considerably. However, on the morning of October 3rd, we reached Woody Point, and at four the same evening, anchored in "Friendly Cove," Nootka Sound, the very interesting point of Cook and Vancouver's operations.

At first I doubted my senses, that so small a space could have occupied so much type, and until I had examined it myself in my boat, did not think it could afford shelter to two vessels. However, by placing one anchor outside, one well in, and the stream cable to the rocks, the Sulphur became well secure with the Starling within us. The greatest distance between any two points does not exceed a quarter of a mile, and mostly rocky.

The weather, during our stay, proved very unpropitious for astronomical observations, and beyond the absolute requisites for time and latitude, little was obtained, and that only after tediously watching for several days.