They continued to pass much pumice-stone; indeed the prodigious quantities of that substance which floated in the sea, between Japan and the Bashee Islands, seemed to indicate that some great volcanic convulsion must have happened in that part of the Pacific Ocean.
On the 14th, they discovered two islands, and on the next day a third; but Captain Gore, finding that a boat could not land without some danger, from the great surf that broke on the shore, kept on his course to the westward.

The middle island is about five miles long; the south point is a high barren hill, presenting an evident volcanic crater.

The earth, rock, or sand, for it was not easy to distinguish of which its surface was composed, exhibited various colours, and a considerable part was conjectured to be sulphur, and some of the officers on board the Resolution thought they saw steams rising from the top of the hill.

From these circumstances, Captain Gore gave it the name of _Sulphur Island_.

A long narrow neck of land connects the hill with the south end of the island, which spreads out into a circumference of three or four leagues, and is of moderate height.