(Footnote.  On mentioning this afterwards to Captain P.P.  King, he told me his survey of that part of the coast had never given him satisfaction; for there the monsoon blows fresh, and his small vessel was hurried past without his being able to land in search of better data for the chart.  The reader must not, from these corrections (few, when we consider the extent of the survey) be led to imagine that our object is to pick out errors in the surveys of others; but from being in a larger and better appointed vessel, our opportunities of examination were necessarily greater than those afforded to Captain King, who was always most anxious to detect errors in his own charts.  Without dwelling on the fact that the result of our examination afforded us the satisfaction of restoring parts of the chart, before erroneously corrected, to his original construction, we would venture to hope that, while desirous as much as possible to perfect our knowledge of the coast, we were in no manner actuated by that spirit of fault-finding, so pithily described by Liebeg, when he says that it is “startling to reflect that all the time and energy of a multitude of persons of genius, talent, and knowledge is expended in endeavours to demonstrate each others’ errors.”)

This error we found to extend also to reefs y and z.  X is one of the oval-shaped reefs, with the singular white patch of dead coral on its northern extremity which I have before spoken of.  Z is similarly marked, and dries at last quarter ebb, while the South-East part of y is never covered, a few mangroves growing on it.  When abreast of x, we saw from deck the curious flat-topped hill on the largest York island, Mount Adolphus, and when over the centre of reef z, it bore North 23 1/2 degrees West.  We now steered to the westward between reefs, x and y, and afterwards North-North-West for Mount Adolphus.  Between the Brothers and Albany Islands the depth was 10 fathoms; these are both black rocky lumps, particularly the latter, the outer being a mere pointed rock.  Altogether they assume a sterile and dreary appearance, in excellent keeping with the inhospitable character of the adjoining coast.  Several shoals and much shoal water were noticed in Newcastle Bay.

BLACKWOOD BAY.

At 4 P.M., we anchored in Blackwood Bay, in a depth of 10 fathoms.  Point Dicky bearing South half a mile, and Mount Adolphus North-East.  In the evening a plan was made of this very convenient stopping place for ships, and all the angles taken to the North-West extremity of the group, place them a mile and a half to the eastward of their position in the chart.  Observations were also obtained near Point Dicky, which we found to be in latitude 10 degrees 38 3/4 minutes South and longitude 10 degrees 28 minutes East of Port Essington.  The North-West extremity of the singular flat-topped hill being 1 minute 05 seconds North, and 45 seconds East of this spot.  The first question interesting to ships is the supply of wood and water; the latter we had no time to look for, but of the former there was an abundance, though from the shore being fronted by extensive coral flats, it is difficult to be attained.