October 19.
After the noon observation another attempt was made
to find a passage to the westward; but at the end
of eighteen miles we found ourselves embayed among
patches of ripplings and breakers. The western
sandhills, seen yesterday, bore at this time South
by East fifteen miles. Two-thirds of the distance
from the shore was a continued line of broken water.
Finding, by sounding with the boats, that there was
no passage for the ship, we retraced our track east;
and in the evening anchored again in 7 fathoms, between
two ridges of 4.
AMPHINOME SHOALS.
The outer breaker of the Amphinome Shoals bore North
37 degrees West three miles, which placed it in latitude
19 degrees 41 minutes South and longitude 119 degrees
24 minutes East; and as these shoals extend eighteen
miles off such low land, they may fairly be considered
dangerous.
BEDOUT ISLAND.
Next evening we anchored off the east side of Bedout
Island, having, in the morning, nineteen miles to
the east of it and twenty-two from the mainland, passed
over a ridge of 5 fathoms.
October 21.
We spent the day on Bedout, the centre of which we
found to be in latitude 19 degrees 35 minutes 45 seconds
South, longitude 119 degrees 08 minutes 45 seconds
East. It is a circular sand islet twenty feet
high, and half a mile in extent. Off its western
side ripplings and rocks extend nearly three miles;
in other parts it is fronted by a circular reef a
mile in extent, and of a different kind from the Turtle
Isle reefs, being composed of live corallines and
fan-like leaves, which giving way readily to the feet,
we suddenly found ourselves immersed almost up to
our necks; within fifty yards of the island this became
worse. The reefs and beaches abounded with turtles
of two kinds, the Mydas and a species of the Imbricated.
We were in time for the noddy’s eggs; but the
other birds had hatched theirs, and left for sea, returning
only at night. From their great abundance and
constant visits they had formed a kind of guano on
the island. Among the varieties of the feathered
tribe was the golden plover.
On the following afternoon we stood over, South-South-East
for the main; but were again prevented by shoal water
from approaching within twelve miles of the nearest
part, which was the western point of the bay seen
from Mount Blaze. Broken water and dry sands extended
between south and east, and to the south-west the
entrance of Breaker Inlet and other parts of the last
year’s survey were readily distinguished.
October 22.
During the forenoon the boats completed the soundings,
and in the evening the ship was anchored under the
North Turtle Isle. Thus terminated the examination
of this hitherto unexplored part of the coast, which
had been the field of many years’ speculation.
One of the most remarkable points, is the great rise
of twenty-eight feet in the tide, which can only be
accounted for by the fact of the water being heaped
up in the concavity formed by the coast; on the first
part of the bight the direction of the flood was from
West, and on the latter from West-North-West.
We had found that no river or other interesting feature
existed; and that it was the most dull and uniform
portion of the continent we had seen, or that could
possibly be imagined.
