Page:Narrative of a survey of the intertropical and western coasts of Australia, Volume 2.djvu/346

 SAILING DIRECTIONS. '321 topped hill on the etern side of the strut, bearing $. 9 �A. Then steer E.b.S., keeping the lead going, and heuling to t. the north if the oundinge are less than seven fathoms, N. Coast. until the Strait is opened bearing S.E.b.S., when you may haul in for Laxmoore Head, and anchor at will. The narrowest part of the strait is where the low, sandy extremity, Point Brace, bears S. 400 E.; the channel then is from seventeen to eighteen fathoms deep, and shoals sud- denly on its south, but gradually on its north side: it is about a mile and a half wide. APSLEY STRAIT is forty miles long, and from one to three broad; the widest part being at the north end: the southern end, for five or six miles from the outlet, is very rocky; the south entrance is in latitude 11 �: the flood sets to the southward, and the ebb, from Van D. iemen's Gulf out of Clarence Strait, runs through the strait to the north, which must cause many shoals off the south en- trance; the depth is generally from ten to thirteen fathoms, but is very irregular towards the south end; at low water many parts are dry, which leave the channels very intricate. We passed over it at high. water without knowing our danger, for the stream of the tide carried us through the � deepest part of the channel. BATHURST ISLAND is from thirty to thirty-three miles in extent, having a circumference of an hundred and twenty miles. ColtDos BAY, on its western side, afiords a good shelter in the easterly monsoon; it is ten miles wide, and six deep, and terminated by POeT HVaD, the entrance to which is fronted by a bar, having twelve or fourteen ft on it at low water.; Near. the south-western head of the bay two projecting elifly points (Twin Cliffs) terminate Vos,. H. Y

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