Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 2.djvu/277

 APPENDIX. k. titan three and a quarter fathoms, unless your vessel is Sect. I. 'small; nor within two hundred yards of the shore, for al- �E*' Coast. thou .gh it is bold in most parts close to, yet there are som, e few straggling rocks off: the south point of Watson's and also some round $hark's Island. There is. good an- chorage .in all parts of the harbour, when within Middle and the South Heads. There is also. anchorage in North Har- bour, but not to be recommended, for the swell sometimes rolls into the mouth of the harbour; no swell can, how- ever, affect the anchorage between Middla Head and. the Sow and Pigs. SYDNEY COVE is nearly half a mile deep, and.four hundred yards wide, and will contain more than twenty ships swinging at their moorings. The shores are bold to, and, excepting the rocky shoals that extend off Point Ben- nilong and Point Dawes, ships may approach very near. On the eastern side of the cove is a convenient place for heaving down: it belongs to the government, but merchant ships may use it, by paying a small sum according to the length of time it is engaged. Wood and water are easily obtained from the north shore of the port; the former may he cut close to the beach; the latter is collected in tanks, and, excepting during a very dry season, is always abundant. The tide rises occasionally at the springs as much as eight feet, but six feet is the general rise; it is high water at Sydney Cove at half past eight o'clock, but at the heads, it precedes this time by a quarter of an hour. The variation of the magnetic needle observed on shore by Lieutenant Roe at Sydney cove in 1822, to be 8 � East, at Garden Island. 9 6 East* at Camp Cove. . 9 42 East.

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