PORT JACKSON.

The Lighthouse, or Macquarie Tower, is in latitude 33 degrees 51 minutes 11 seconds South and longitude 4 minutes 29.8 seconds east of Sir Thomas Brisbane’s Observatory at Sydney, or 151 degrees 19 minutes 45 seconds East of Greenwich.  It is a revolving light and may be seen at the distance of ten leagues.  The Inner South Head bears from it North 20 degrees West* and is distant about two thousand five hundred yards.  The North Head bears from the Inner South Head North 53 degrees East by compass, about two thousand four hundred and forty yards; and the narrowest part of the entrance, which is between the Inner North and South Heads, is a little more than eight hundred yards, so that there is abundance of room to work in should the wind blow out of the Port.  On arriving off the lighthouse, steer in between the North and South Heads until you are past the line of bearing of the Outer North, and the Inner South Heads:  then haul round the latter, but avoid a reef of rocks that extends for two hundred yards off the point, and steer for Middle Head, a projecting cliff at the bottom of the bay, until the harbour opens round the Inner South Head; you may then pass on either side of the Sow and Pigs; but the eastern channel, although the narrowest, is perhaps the best; but this, in a great measure, depends upon the direction of the wind.  The eastern channel is the deepest.  The Sow and Pigs, or Middle Ground, is the only danger in Port Jackson:  it is a bank of sand and rocks, of about eight hundred yards in length, by about three hundred and fifty in breadth:  its length being in the direction of the harbour; a very small portion of it is dry, and consists of a few rocks, upon which the sea almost always breaks; they are situated upon the outer end of the shoal, and are in the line of bearing of the Outer North and the Inner South Heads.  The south-western tail of the bank is chiefly of sand, with rocks scattered about it; but, on the greater portion of it, there is twelve feet water; it gradually deepens to three and a quarter fathoms, which is beyond the rocky limits of the shoal.  To sail through the Western Channel, which is from one-third to half a mile wide, steer towards George’s Head, a high rocky head, about three quarters of a mile above Middle Head, keeping it in sight upon the larboard bow, and the sea horizon open between the points of entrance, until you are within the line of bearing between a small sandy beach on the western shore and Green Point; the latter is a grassy mound, the south head of Camp Cove.  Then steer for George’s Head, and gradually round it:  when you have passed the line of bearing between it and Green Point, and opened the sandy beach of Watson’s Bay, steer boldly up the harbour.  In rounding Point Bradley, there is a rocky shelf that runs off the point for perhaps one hundred yards.  Pass on either side of Pinch-gut Island, and, in hauling into Sydney Cove, avoid a rocky reef that extends off Point Bennelong for rather more than two hundred yards into the sea.