Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 1.djvu/115

 COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 61 shoaled our soundings from 31 to 10 fathoms; and during the morning we steered through them. The group contains several low coral-formed i_l,mds; the north. eastemmost of which proved to be the New Year's Island of Lieutenant M'Cluer of the Bombay Marine; they are covered with a shrubby vegetation, and are severally surrounded by a coral reef: the principal of them were named Oxley's, M'Cluer's, and Lawson's Islands, and a larger and higher ilaud in the S.S.W. was named in compliment to my friend Captain Charles Grant, C. B., of the Royal Navy, under whose'auspices I entered the naval service. We steered on to the E.S.E. through the first part of the night, with every prospect of reaching Cape Arnhem, where our examination of the coast westwardly was to commence; but at mid. night the wind changed to the eastward, and at day-light, (-26th) the land was visible from south to S.W. At ten o'clock we fetched in close to a low sandy point, and then bore up to the westward along the coast, which appeared, as it afterwards proved to be, a part of the main. The low point which commenced our survey was called Point Braithwaite, and one mile N.W. from it is Point Hall: the. shore then trends five miles to the westward to Point Cuthbert, from which a shoal communication extends towards a rock on which

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