Volume II Part 22 (1/2)
From Macquarie Strait the land trends to the westward, and north-westward to De Courcy Head, and forms but few sinuosities. POINT BROGDEN, in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 30 minutes, the only projection in this s.p.a.ce, is remarkable for being higher than usual, and for having a range of cliffs to the southward of the point; with a solitary tree near its extremity, hence the land is rocky towards De Courcy Head, which is a cliffy projection in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 17 minutes 30 seconds; thence the sh.o.r.e continues rocky to Cape c.o.c.kburn, a low rocky point, with a conspicuous tree at its extremity. The point is wooded to within a short distance of the sea, as is generally the case with the sh.o.r.es of this coast. CAPE c.o.c.kBURN is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 18 minutes, and longitude 132 degrees 53 minutes 5 seconds.
MOUNTNORRIS BAY extends between Cape c.o.c.kburn and Cape Croker, it is twenty-eight miles wide, and twenty-three deep. It contains several islands, and is also fronted by a group, of which New Year's Island, the lat.i.tude of whose centre is 10 degrees 55 minutes, and longitude 133 degrees 0 minutes 36 seconds, is the outermost; the others are named Oxley, Lawson, McCluer, Grant, Templer, and Cowlard. They are straggling, and have wide and apparently deep channels between them. Between New Year's and McCluer's Islands, the channel is nearly eight miles wide and eighteen and nineteen fathoms deep. A reef extends off the north-west end of the latter island for nearly three miles, and the ground is rocky and shoal for some distance off the north-east end of Oxley's Island. Grant's Island is higher than the others, which are merely small woody islets, the centre is in 11 degrees 10 minutes.
At the north-east end of Mountnorris Bay is MALAY BAY which is four miles wide and six deep; it affords good anchorage in four and five fathoms in the centre: as it offered no other inducement, we did not land upon any part of it. Between Valentia Island and Point Annesley, the channel is more than a mile wide and four fathoms deep. VALENTIA ISLAND has a reef off its north point, and another off its south-east point, each about a mile in extent.
COPELAND ISLAND is small and wedge-shaped, its summit is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 28 minutes, and longitude 132 degrees 43 minutes; four miles and a quarter West-North-West from it is a covered sandbank having nine feet water near its edge; it was not quite certain whether it was joined to the land or not, from which it is distant two miles and a half.
On the western side of the bay there is a strait two miles wide separating Croker's Island from the main; it is ten or eleven miles in length, and is navigable since the Malay fleet were observed to pa.s.s through it.
CROKER'S ISLAND is twenty-one miles and a quarter from north to south, and from two to five broad, its northern extremity is in 10 degrees 58 minutes 30 seconds lat.i.tude, and 132 degrees 34 minutes 10 seconds longitude; about three-quarters of a mile within it there is a remarkable rocky k.n.o.b: its south extreme is in 11 degrees 19 1/4 minutes.
PALM BAY, on its western side, is an excellent anchorage in the easterly monsoon; it is four miles and a half wide, and nearly three deep. The sh.o.r.e is rocky for a mile off, and the south point has a rocky shoal projecting to the West-North-West for a mile and a quarter.
DARCH'S ISLAND is separated from Croker's Island by a navigable strait two miles wide; near the reef at the north-east end we had six fathoms, but in mid-channel the depth was as much as eleven fathoms. A considerable reef projects off the east end for more than a mile. The island is about two miles and three-quarters long, and is thickly wooded; its north point is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 7 minutes 30 seconds.
RAFFLES BAY forms a good port during any season; it is seven miles deep, and from two to three broad: beyond High Point the depth is not more than three fathoms and a half. The anchorage is however quite safe.
The bay to the eastward of Point Smith, which has a reef extending from it for nearly a mile, has a shoal opening at its bottom of very little importance. At the north-east end of the bay, separated from the point by a channel a mile wide, and more than five fathoms deep, is a small sandy island, with a reef extending for a mile off its north end.
PORT ESSINGTON, the outer heads of which, Vashon Head and Point Smith, are seven miles apart, is an extensive port, thirteen miles and a quarter deep, and from five to three wide; independent of its Inner Harbour, which, with a navigable entrance of a mile wide, is five miles deep and four wide. The port is not only capacious, but has very few shoals or dangers in it.
On the western side, off Island Point, there are some rocks, and also a reef projects for a mile off the bluff point that forms the east head of Knocker's Bay. The western side of the entrance to Inner Harbour, is also rocky and shoal for two-thirds across, but near the opposite point* the depth is thirteen fathoms.
(*Footnote. This is Point Record of Captain Bremer, see above.)
On the eastern side of the port there is no danger beyond a quarter of a mile from the sh.o.r.e, excepting a reef of rocks, some of which are dry; this danger, when in a line with a remarkable cliff two miles and a quarter to the south of Table Point, bears East-South-East 1/2 East; close without them the depth is five fathoms.
The INNER HARBOUR is divided into two basins which extend in for two miles on either side of Middle Head, a cliffy projection, surrounded by a rocky sh.o.r.e for a quarter of a mile off. The anchorage between the entrance and Middle Head is in five and six fathoms mud, and in the centre of the western basin the depth is five fathoms mud. The sh.o.r.es are higher than usual, and are varied by sandy beaches and cliffs, some of white and others of a red colour. The western side of the port was not visited, and our tracks and examinations were made princ.i.p.ally on the opposite sh.o.r.e. At the bottom of Knocker's Bay is a shoal mangrove opening, of no importance. See volume 1.
POINT SMITH is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 6 minutes 45 seconds, and longitude 132 degrees 12 minutes 30 seconds.
VASHON HEAD has a considerable shoal projecting from it, and extending into the bay to the westward which was called TREPANG BAY. This bay has an opening at the bottom, that appeared to be shoal. A small sandy island lies at the distance of a mile and three-quarters from the sh.o.r.e; the reef projects into the sea for nearly a mile farther, and apparently extends to the South-West to the north head of POPHAM BAY, which has a small opening at the bottom, but of shoal approach; good anchorage may be had in Popham Bay in five and six fathoms, a little within the heads, and as they bear North and South-South-West, it is well sheltered in the easterly monsoon. Hence to CAPE DON is three miles and a half. The latter cape is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 19 minutes 30 seconds, and longitude 131 degrees 45 minutes 30 seconds.
VAN DIEMEN'S GULF is seventy miles deep, and more than forty broad. It has two outlets to sea; the one to the northward, DUNDAS STRAIT, is sixteen miles wide and very deep; the other, CLARENCE STRAIT, is seventeen miles wide, and communicates with the sea round the south sides of Melville and Bathurst Islands: it is probably not so safe as Dundas'
Strait, on account of Vernon's Isles, which lie in mid channel, near its western end.
The north eastern side of Van Diemen's Gulf washes the south side of Coburg Peninsula. It has several bays, and, to the eastward of MOUNTS BEDWELL and Roe, the sh.o.r.e is fronted by SIR GEORGE HOPE'S ISLANDS, forming a channel or port within them twenty miles deep and from three to six broad; the entrance to it is round the north end of GREENHILL ISLAND, which is separated from the land of the peninsula, by a strait a mile and a half wide: the depth in mid-channel, for the sh.o.r.e on either side for half a mile is shoal and rocky, is eighteen fathoms, and within it the bottom is six, seven, and eight fathoms deep, and princ.i.p.ally of mud.
This strait is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 35 minutes.
The eastern side has several openings in it, but the sh.o.r.es are very low, and of shoal approach. At its south-east end are the two (and probably three) Alligator Rivers; the westernmost (or centre) is fronted by FIELD ISLAND, the centre of which is in 12 degrees 6 minutes lat.i.tude, and 132 degrees 25 minutes 10 seconds longitude. These rivers have been described in the narrative. See volume 1. The bottom of the gulf is very low, and forms two bights, separated by a point that projects for seven or eight miles.
In the neighbourhood of the rivers the country is sprinkled with wooded hills, that extend in a straggling chain towards Wellington Range, of which they might be considered a part: but between the rivers and Clarence Strait the country is low and flat, and only protected from inroads of the sea by a barrier of sandhills, beyond which not a vestige of the interior could be seen.
CLARENCE STRAIT separates Bathurst and Melville Islands from the mainland: it is seventy-five miles long, and from seventeen to thirty-five wide. The narrowest part is at about its centre, between Cape Gambier and Cape Eldon, and in this s.p.a.ce is a group of four low rocky islands, covered with mangroves (Vernon's Islands) from which considerable reefs extend towards either sh.o.r.e.
The best channel is probably on the northern side, near Cape Gambier, which is in lat.i.tude 11 degrees 56 minutes 20 seconds; and there also appeared to be a wide and safe channel on the south side; but the neighbourhood of Vernon's Islands is rocky. The flood-tide sets to the eastward into the gulf.
MELVILLE ISLAND is of considerable size, and forms the western side of Van Diemen's Gulf; its greatest length from Cape Van Diemen to Cape Keith being seventy-two miles, and its greatest breadth thirty-eight miles; its circ.u.mference is two hundred miles.