Volume II Part 18 (2/2)

TWO ISLES are also low and wooded, and surrounded by a reef: the largest islet is in lat.i.tude 15 degrees 1 minute 20 seconds, and longitude 145 degrees 22 minutes 10 seconds.

REEF g appeared to be about a mile broad and two miles and a half long: its south end is in lat.i.tude 15 degrees 0 minutes 15 seconds, longitude 145 degrees 26 minutes 45 seconds.

REEF h is an extensive reef, having high breakers on its outer edge: it is more than four miles long, and separated from the north end of g by a channel a mile wide.

REEF i has several detached reefs about it, on the northernmost are two rocky islands, and to the southward, on a detached shoal, there is a bare sandy islet that is perhaps occasionally covered by the tide: its south-westernmost extremity and the summit of Lizard Island are in the line of bearing of North 5 degrees West (magnetic) its lat.i.tude is 14 degrees 53 minutes 40 seconds.

REEF k, in lat.i.tude 14 degrees 47 minutes, has a dry sand upon it: its sub-marine extent was not ascertained.

REEF l; the position of this reef is rather uncertain, near its western side is a dry key in lat.i.tude 14 degrees 47 minutes 30 seconds.

m is probably unconnected with the shoal off the south end of Eagle Island. In Captain Cook's rough chart there is twelve fathoms marked between two shoals which must mean the above.

EAGLE ISLAND is low and wooded, and situated at the north end of a considerable shoal; its lat.i.tude is 14 degrees 42 minutes 20 seconds, and longitude 145 degrees 18 minutes 30 seconds.

DIRECTION ISLANDS are two high rocky islands, so called by Captain Cook to direct s.h.i.+ps to the opening in the reefs, through which he pa.s.sed out to sea; they are high and of conical shape, and might be seen more than five or six leagues off was it not for the hazy weather that always exists in the neighbourhood of the reefs; the northernmost is in lat.i.tude 14 degrees 44 minutes 50 seconds, longitude 145 degrees 26 minutes 25 seconds: the southernmost is in lat.i.tude 14 degrees 50 minutes, longitude 145 degrees 26 minutes 45 seconds.

LIZARD ISLAND, about three miles long, is remarkable for its peaked summit, the lat.i.tude of which is 14 degrees 40 minutes 20 seconds, and longitude 145 degrees 23 minutes: on its south side is an extensive reef encompa.s.sing three islets, of which two are high and rocky: the best anchorage is on its western side under the summit; with the high northernmost of the Direction Islands in sight over the low land, bearing about South-East by compa.s.s: the depth is six and seven fathoms sandy bottom. The variation here is 5 degrees 2 minutes East.

TURTLE GROUP is four miles to the north of Point Lookout; the islets are encircled by a horse-shoe shaped coral reef, and consist of six islands, all low and bushy. These islands are not laid down with sufficient accuracy as to their relative positions.

n is a low wooded island about eleven miles west from Lizard Island; no reef was seen to project from it; it is in the meridian of the observatory of Endeavour River; and in lat.i.tude 14 degrees 40 minutes.

o is a small coral reef; it lies a mile and a half North 64 degrees West from the north end of n.

p is a coral reef, about a mile in extent, separated from o by a channel of a mile wide.

q, a reef, on which are two low wooded isles, apparently connected with a shoal extending from Point Lookout along the sh.o.r.e to the West-North-West; the isles are seven miles North 64 degrees West from Point Lookout.

COLES ISLANDS consist of four small bushy islets from a quarter to half a mile in extent; they are from four to six miles North-East from Point Murdoch. This group appeared to be merely the several dry parts of the shoal that extends from Point Lookout to n.o.ble Island; between them and the latter island, are two patches of dry sandy keys, but it is probable that they may be covered by the tide. The continuation of the shoal between the islands and Point Lookout was not clearly ascertained.

At POINT MURDOCH, which has a peaked hill at its extremity, the hills again approach the coast; at Cape Bowen they project into the sea, and separate two bays, in each of which there is possibly a rivulet; that to the eastward of the cape trends in and forms a deep bight. On the western side of the hills of Cape Bowen there is a track of low land, separating them from another rocky range. The summit of the hill at Point Murdoch is in lat.i.tude 14 degrees 40 minutes, and longitude 144 degrees 46 minutes.

HOWICK'S GROUP consists of ten or eleven islands, of which Number 1, remarkable for a hillock at its south-east end, is in lat.i.tude 14 degrees 32 minutes 40 seconds, and longitude 144 degrees 55 minutes 20 seconds; it is nearly three miles long; the rest are all less than half a mile in extent, excepting the westernmost, Number 6, which is nearly a mile and a half in diameter.

The pa.s.sage between 2 and 3 is safe, and has seven and eight fathoms: the north-west side of 3 is of rocky approach, but the opposite side of the strait is bold to; the anchorage is tolerably good. The Mermaid drove, but it was not considered to be caused by the nature of the bottom, which is of soft sand, and free from rocks.

The channel between 1 and 2 appeared to be very rocky, and shoal: between 1 and the reef r there is probably a clear channel of about a mile wide: the north-east end of 1 has a reef which extends off it for half a mile.

(*Footnote. Many shoals, partly dry, occupy the s.p.a.ce to the northward and eastward of Howick's Group. Roe ma.n.u.script.)

All the islands are low and wooded, and surrounded by a coral reef of small extent.

4 has a small islet off its west end.

5, 8, and 9 did not appear to have any reefs projecting from them. 7 is probably two islands, with a reef extending for half a mile on its western side. 6 is of larger size than the generality of the low islands hereabout, Number 1 excepted: its centre is in lat.i.tude 14 degrees 28 minutes, and longitude 144 degrees 45 minutes. The position of Number 10 was not correctly ascertained.

The peak of CAPE BOWEN is in lat.i.tude 14 degrees 34 minutes, and longitude 144 degrees 35 minutes 40 seconds.

<script>