Volume II Part 20 (1/2)

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.