ABSTRACT
In 1774, during his second voyage, Captain James Cook discovered (and, in the name of Britain, claimed) an island five miles long and three miles wide with a total area of 8,527 acres and a coastline of about nineteen miles. It was named after the Howard family, dukes of Norfolk. At this time, the island was uninhabited, but evidence, such as stone tools, has been found of earlier human occupation; the few artifacts found to date, however, have allowed investigators to deter mine little about these early inhabitants. The island is mostly surrounded by steep cliffs with an average elevation of 350 feet, although two peaks, Mount Pitt and Mount Bates, reach more than 900 feet. At the time of Cook's landing, the island was densely vegetated with trees reaching down to the shore line. Norfolk and two smaller islands to the south, Nepean and Phillip, form a part of the volcanic Norfolk Ridge that extends from New Caledonia to New Zealand.
