Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia Volume II Part 20

8 and 9 are two low, woody islets of about a mile and a quarter in diameter. Some shoal marks on the water were observed opposite these islands, but their existence was not ascertained. Both the islets are surrounded by coral reefs, of small extent.

NIGHT ISLAND, its north end in lat.i.tude 13 degrees 13 minutes 8 seconds, and longitude 143 degrees 28 minutes 40 seconds, is a low woody island, two miles long, but not more than half a mile wide; it is surrounded by a coral reef, that does not extend more than a quarter of a mile from its northern end. On the south side, and within it, the s.p.a.ce seemed to be much occupied by reefs, but they were not distinctly made out, on account of the thickness of the weather. There was also the appearance of a covered shoal, bearing North 55 degrees East from the north end of the island, distant four miles.*

(*Footnote. Observed many shoals to the North-West of Night Island; one bore East-North-East, two miles and a half from its north point; we saw much shoal water to seaward. Roe ma.n.u.script.)

u and w are two reefs; the former, which was dry when we pa.s.sed, lies six miles North 18 degrees West from the north end of Night Island; there is also a small rock detached from it, which is not visible until close to it.

v is a covered coral reef, of about a mile and a quarter in extent; its centre is in 13 degrees 1 minute lat.i.tude.

SHERRARD'S ISLETS are low and bushy, and surrounded by a rocky shoal extending for a mile to the South-East; the south-westernmost is in 12 degrees 58 minutes 10 seconds lat.i.tude, and 143 degrees 30 minutes 15 seconds longitude.

10 is a low wooded islet, in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 53 minutes 10 seconds, on a reef of small extent; abreast of it is a rocky islet, lying about a mile and a half south from CAPE DIRECTION; off its east end is a smaller rock.

The coast between Cape Sidmouth and Cape Direction is rather high, and the sh.o.r.e is formed by a sandy beach. Ten miles North-West from the former cape is an opening in the hills; the high land then continues to the northward to Cape Direction, which has a peak near its extremity, close off which are two small rocks, but the depth at a mile and a half off is thirteen fathoms. The peak is in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 51 minutes 55 seconds, and longitude 143 degrees 26 minutes 10 seconds.*

(*Footnote. Shoal water extends for about six miles round the north side of Cape Direction. Roe ma.n.u.script.)

x; the position of this reef was not precisely ascertained; it appeared to be about two miles to the North-North-West of the extremity of the cape.

y and z are two covered reefs, of not more than a mile in extent; they are separated from each other by a channel a mile wide; y is four miles and a half North 51 degrees East from Cape Direction.

a and b are also covered reefs; the former is a mile and a quarter in length; the latter extends for two miles in an east direction, and is a mile broad: a bears nearly east, nine miles, from a peaked hill on the sh.o.r.e, and is five miles to the south of Cape Weymouth.

LLOYD'S BAY was not examined; it appeared to have a considerable opening at its south-west end, where the land was very low; the hilly country to the south of Cape Direction also ceases, and there is a considerable s.p.a.ce of low land between them and the south end of Cape Weymouth range.

CAPE WEYMOUTH is an elevated point, sloping off from a high summit; its extreme is in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 37 minutes 15 seconds, and longitude 143 degrees 20 minutes 35 seconds. RESTORATION ISLAND, off the cape, is high, and of conical shape; about a mile East-South-East from it is a small rocky islet. The coast then extends towards Bolt Head, and forms several sinuosities, one of which is WEYMOUTH BAY of Captain Cook; the sh.o.r.es of the bay were not well examined.*

(*Footnote. There is a dry sand four or five miles North-West from Cape Weymouth. Roe ma.n.u.script.)

FAIR CAPE, so named by Lieutenant Bligh, is a projection of high land, in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 25 minutes, longitude 143 degrees 11 minutes 15 seconds: it has a reef off it according to Lieutenant Jeffrey's account, but its situation does not appear to have been correctly ascertained: we did not see it.

BOLT HEAD is the north-west end of the high land at the south end of TEMPLE BAY. It is here that the high land terminates; the coast to the northward being very low and sandy; with the exception of CAPE GRENVILLE, which is the rocky projection that forms the north extremity of Temple Bay. A little to the south of the cape is INDIAN BAY of Lieutenant Bligh.

The lat.i.tude of Cape Grenville's east trend is 11 degrees 57 minutes 30 seconds, its longitude 143 degrees 8 minutes.

c is a coral reef, with a dry sandy key at its northern end, in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 35 minutes 20 seconds, longitude 143 degrees 25 minutes 15 seconds; it is about two miles long.

d, a small oval-shaped reef in the channel between c and e: it is covered, and has perhaps twelve feet water over it.

e is an extensive coral reef, fourteen miles long, commencing in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 32 1/2 minutes, and extending to 12 degrees 24 minutes; and in longitude 143 degrees 16 minutes: it is entirely covered, except a few dry rocks at its north-west end: the south-eastern extremity of the reef is perhaps three or four miles wide, but its eastern termination was not clearly distinguished.

f is a small reef, about three miles South-West from QUOIN ISLAND, which is a small wedge-shaped rock: it is in the neighbourhood of this reef that the merchant s.h.i.+p, Morning Star, was lost. Quoin Island is in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 24 minutes, and longitude 143 degrees 23 minutes 50 seconds.

g is a coral reef, ten miles long, and from one to two broad; having a dry rock upon it (in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 18 minutes 20 seconds, and longitude 143 degrees 14 minutes 35 seconds) about three miles from its north end.

FORBES' ISLANDS are high and rocky, but appeared to be clothed with vegetation; the group occupies a s.p.a.ce of about two miles. The summit of Forbes' Island is in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 16 minutes 35 seconds, and longitude 143 degrees 18 minutes 50 seconds.

h, a coral reef, with some dry rocks near its north end, is about one mile long, and separated from i by a narrow pa.s.s. The south end of h bears from the summit of Forbes' Island West 1/4 South seven miles.

i and k, coral reefs, lying North-West, having a very narrow channel between them; the former is covered, but the latter has a dry sandy key at its north-west end, in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 12 minutes 20 seconds, and longitude 143 degrees 10 minutes 5 seconds.

PIPER'S ISLETS are four low bushy islets upon two circular reefs, with a pa.s.sage separating them of a quarter of a mile wide; the reefs have each two islets upon them, and a dry rocky key round their western edge: the centre of the narrowest part of the channel between them is twelve and a half fathoms deep, but abreast the south end of the south-easternmost shoal there is ten and a half fathoms.

l, a circular coral reef, a mile and a half in diameter, with a dry rock at its east end, in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 9 minutes 5 seconds, and longitude 143 degrees 11 minutes.

YOUNG ISLAND, a small islet on a coral reef of about half a mile in extent, in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 6 minutes 50 seconds, and longitude 143 degrees 7 minutes. (See volume 1.)

m, a coral reef, about two and a half miles long, having a dry rock at its north end; it bears South 40 degrees West, three miles from the summit of Haggerston's Island.

n, an extensive, irregular-shaped, coral reef, seven miles long, and from one to four broad; it is separated from o by a narrow tortuous channel, but not safe to pa.s.s through: both n and o are covered. There is a safe pa.s.sage between these reefs and Haggerston's Island, of a mile and a half wide; but there is a small reef detached from the north-west end of n, which should be avoided, although there is probably sufficient depth of water over it for any s.h.i.+p: it was seen from the summit of the island, from whence another coral patch was observed at about one mile to the westward, of which we saw no signs.

p is a small reef, of about a mile and a quarter in extent; it was seen from the summit of Haggerston's Island, as was also another reef, seven miles South by East from it: the positions of these reefs are doubtful.

HAGGERSTON'S ISLAND is high and rocky; the summit is in lat.i.tude 12 degrees 1 minute 40 seconds, and longitude 143 degrees 12 minutes; it is situated at the South-South-West extremity of a coral reef, of nearly two miles in length; its northern side is furnished with some trees and a sandy beach. At the north end of the reef are two dry patches of sand and rocks. It is separated from the islands of Sir Everard Home's Group by a channel nearly three miles wide, quite free from danger; but in pa.s.sing through it, the tide or current sets to the North-North-West, round the reef off Haggerston's Island. (See volume 1.)

SIR EVERARD HOME'S GROUP consists of six islands: the two south-westernmost are rocky, and one of them has two peaks upon it, which, from the southward, have the appearance of being upon the extremity of Cape Grenville: the south-easternmost has a hillock, or clump of trees, at its south-east extremity, in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 57 minutes 40 seconds, and longitude 143 degrees 11 minutes. The outer part of this group is bold to, and the islands may be approached, but the s.p.a.ce within them appeared to be rocky: there is a pa.s.sage between the group and Cape Grenville. The merchant s.h.i.+p Lady Elliot in pa.s.sing through it, found overfalls with eighteen fathoms.

Round Cape Grenville is MARGARET BAY, fronted by SUNDAY ISLAND, elevated and rocky, but not so high as Haggerston's Island, with good anchorage under its lee.

q is a covered reef of about a mile in extent, in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 55 minutes, five or six miles to the East-North-East of Sir Everard Home's Group.

SIR CHARLES HARDY'S ISLANDS are high and rocky, and may be seen five or six leagues off; the summit is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 53 minutes 20 seconds, and longitude 143 degrees 23 minutes 40 seconds.

r is a covered reef; and s, a reef, with a dry sandy key upon it.

c.o.c.kBURN ISLES are rocky, and may be seen four leagues off.*

(*Footnote. There is a dry sand bearing South-West by West 1/2 West, two miles and a half from the southernmost c.o.c.kburn Island, and there are many shoals of great extent to the northward of the group. Roe ma.n.u.script.)

t and u are two reefs that were seen at a distance, and appeared to be detached from each other.

BIRD ISLES (the Lagoon Islands of Lieutenant Bligh) consist of three low bushy islets encompa.s.sed by a reef: the islands are at the outer verge of the reef, and may be pa.s.sed within a quarter of a mile; the north-east island is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 44 minutes 15 seconds, and longitude 142 degrees 58 minutes 45 seconds.

McARTHUR'S ISLES consist of four low bushy islets, of which two are very small; they are encompa.s.sed by a reef of more than three miles long, and are separated from the Bird Isles by a channel three miles and a half wide.

HANNIBAL'S ISLES are three in number, low and covered with bushes, the easternmost is near the extremity of the reef encircling the whole, and is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 34 minutes 15 seconds, and longitude 142 degrees 51 minutes 20 seconds.*

(*Footnote. There is a dry sand at one mile and three-quarters, and another at two miles and a half North-North-West from North Hannibal Island.)

v and w; these shoals are separated by a safe channel of a mile and a quarter wide; v is circular, and has a dry sand at its north-west edge, and a rocky key at its south-west end; the channel between it and Hannibal's Islands is two miles and a half wide: w is nearly four miles long, and is entirely covered; the course between them is west, but, by hauling close round the east end of v, a West by North 1/2 North course will carry a vessel a quarter of a mile to leeward of the west end of w; the north-west extreme of w is three miles and a quarter South 35 degrees West from Islet 1.

The islets 1 and 2 are contained in a triangular-shaped reef, of about a mile and three quarters in extent; they are covered with low trees. Islet 1 is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 28 minutes 45 seconds. Number 3 is a sandy islet crowned with bushes at the north-west end of a coral reef of about a mile and a half in length. Between the two latter reefs there appeared to be a channel of a mile wide in the direction of about North-West. 4, 5, and 6, are sandy islets covered with bushes, on small detached reefs, with, apparently, a pa.s.sage between each: 4 is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 22 minutes 30 seconds. 7, a small bushy island,* is separated from CAIRNCROSS ISLAND by a channel two miles wide. The latter is a small woody island, situated at the north-west end of a coral reef, more than two miles long and one broad; the north-west point of the reef runs off with a sharp point for about a quarter of a mile from the islet. There is good anchorage under it, but the depth is fifteen fathoms, and the sea is rather heavy at times with the tide setting against the wind; the lat.i.tude of its centre is 11 degrees 33 minutes 30 seconds, and its longitude 142 degrees 50 minutes 35 seconds. (See volume 1 and above.)

(*Footnote. A rocky reef extends for two miles to the southward of islet 7. Roe ma.n.u.script.)

8, 9, and 10, are low, woody islets: 8 is five miles to the eastward of Cairncross Island; 9 and 10 are to the northward of 8.

11 is also low and woody, but its position was not clearly ascertained.

ORFORDNESS is a sandy projection of the coast under Pudding-pan Hill (of Bligh) the shape of which, being flat-topped, is very remarkable: the hill is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 18 minutes 30 seconds, and longitude 142 degrees 43 minutes 35 seconds.