the name given by Perouse to a very fine bay which he discovered on the coast of Tartary, in Lat. 45° 13' North, and in Long. 135° 9' East from Paris. The bottom is sandy, and diminishes gradually to fix fathoms within a cable's length of the shore. The tide rises five feet; it is high water at 8° 15' at full and change; and the flux and reflux do not alter the direction of the current at half a league from the shore.

"Five small creeks (says La Perouse), similar to the sides of a regular polygon, form the outline of this roadstead; these are separated from each other by hills, which are covered to the summit with trees. Never did France, in the freshness of spring, offer gradations of colour so varied and strong a green; and though we had not seen, since we began to run along the coast, either a single fire or canoe, we could not imagine that a country so near to China, and which appeared so fertile, should be entirely uninhabited. Before our boats had landed, our glances were turned towards the shore, but we saw only bears and flags, which passed very quietly along the sea side. The same plants which grow in our climates carpeted the whole soil, but they were stronger, and of a deeper green; the greater part were in flower. Roses, red and yellow lilacs, lilies of the valley, and all our meadow flowers in general, were met with at every step. Pine trees covered the tops of the mountains; oaks began only half way down, and diminished in strength and size in proportion as they came nearer the sea; the banks of the rivers and rivulets were bordered with willow, birch, and maple trees, and on the skirts of the forests we saw apple and medlar trees in flower, with clumps of hazel nut trees, the fruit of which already made its appearance. Our surprise was redoubled, when we reflected on the population which overburdens the extensive empire of China, so that the laws do not punish fathers barbarous enough to drown and destroy their children, and that this people, whose polity is so highly boasted of, dares not extend itself beyond its wall, to draw its subsistence from a land, the vegetation of which it would be necessary rather to check than to encourage. At every step after we had landed, we perceived traces of men by the destruction they had made; several trees, cut with sharp-edged instruments; the remains of ravages by fire were to be seen in several places, and we observed some fields, which had been erected by hunters in a corner of the woods. We also found some small bullets, made of the bark of birch trees sewed with thread, and similar to those of the Canadian Indians; rackets for walking on the snow; in a word, every thing induced us to think that the Tartars approached the borders of the sea in the season for hunting and fishing; that they assemble in colonies at that period along the rivers; and that the bulk of the nation live in the interior of the country on a foil perhaps better calculated for the multiplication of their immense flocks and herds."

Our navigators caught in the bay vast quantities of fine fish, such as cod, harp-fish, trout, salmon, herrings, and plaice; but though game was plenty on shore, they had no success in hunting. The meadows, so delightful to the sight, could scarce be trod; the thick grass was three or four feet high, so that they found themselves in a manner buried in it, and they were under the perpetual dread of being bitten by serpents, of which which they saw a great number on the banks of the rivulets. They found, however, immense quantities of small onions, forrel, and celery; which, together with the fresh fish, served as antidotes against the fever.