Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia eBook

Philip Parker King
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 567 pages of information about Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia.

Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia eBook

Philip Parker King
This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 567 pages of information about Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia.

Thirty-three miles in a North 14 degrees West direction from the summit of Caffarelli Island is ADELE ISLAND.  It is low, and merely covered with a few shrubs, and is about three miles from east to west, and from one to one and a half broad; its west end is in 15 degrees 30 minutes South, and 123 degrees 9 minutes 15 seconds East.  At about a league North-West from its western end are two bare sandy islets, which were uncovered as we passed, but which as there was not the slightest appearance of vegetation upon it, may be covered at high water.  On the western side of Adele Island, is an extensive patch of light-coloured water, in some parts of which the sea broke upon the rocks, which were only just below the surface.  The light-coloured water extends for fourteen miles North West by West 1/2 West from Adele Island, but there is reason to think that the water is deep over the greater part of it; for we crossed over its tail, and sounded in forty-five fathoms without finding bottom, whilst in the darker-coloured water on either side of it, we had forty-two and forty-four fathoms.

POINT SWAN is the north-easternmost point of the land of Cape Leveque; it has an island close off its extremity, round which the tide rushes with great force, and forms a line of ripplings for ten miles to the West-North-West, through which, even in the Bathurst, we found it dangerous to pass.  Five miles to the north-eastward of the point are two small rocky islets, two miles apart from each other.

CAPE LEVEQUE is low and rocky, with a small islet close to its extremity:  its extreme is in latitude 16 degrees 21 minutes 50 seconds, and longitude 122 degrees 56 minutes 35 seconds.  Between the cape and Point Swan, there is a sandy bay, fronted by a bed of rocks.  It was in this bay that the Buccaneers anchored, which Dampier has so well described.

The coast between CAPES LEVEQUE and BORDA extending South 40 degrees West nineteen miles, is low and rocky, and the country sandy and unproductive.  Between Cape Borda and Point Emeriau is a bay ten miles deep, backed by very low sandy land; and five miles further is another bay, that appeared to be very shoal:  thence the coast extends to the South-West for twenty-three miles to CAPE BASKERVILLE; it is low and sandy, like that to the northward, but the interior is higher, and with some appearance of vegetation.

Thirteen miles from the shore are the LACEPEDE ISLANDS; they are three in number, and surrounded by a reef nine miles long by five wide.  They lie in a North-West direction, and are two miles apart:  the north-westernmost is in latitude 16 degrees 49 minutes 40 seconds, and longitude 122 degrees 7 minutes 20 seconds:  they are low and slightly clothed with bushes, and seem to be little more than the dry parts of the reef, on which a soil has been accumulated, and in time produced vegetation.  These islands appear to be the haunt of prodigious numbers of boobies.  The variation is 0 degrees 12 minutes West.

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Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.