May 28, 1800.] ADMIRALTY SURVEYS— SOtJTH AFRICA— CHINA. 153 



Captain Sir Leopold M'Clintock ; while his companion in the late 

 Arctic voyage, Captain Allen Young, with another Medallist, Dr. 

 Kae, will follow in the Fox yacht to examine the coasts more in 

 detail. As geographers, we must heartily bid them " God speed." 



South Africa. — In the Cape Colony Mr. Francis Skead, r.n., 

 Admiralty Surveyor, has corrected the general positions in False 

 Bay and discovered two shoal spots lying about one mile to the 

 south-west of the Cape. It is gratifying to be able to announce 

 that on the first day of this present month of May, a bright light, 

 revolving once a minute, at an elevation of 81 6 feet above the sea, and 

 visible for a distance of 3G miles, has at length been exhibited on Cape 

 Point. It seems extraordinary that this remarkable cape, so cele- 

 brated in the annals of navigation, first seen by the Portuguese navi- 

 gator Bartolommeo Diaz in 148G, and first rounded by another equally 

 famous Portuguese, Vasco de Gama, on the 20th of November, 

 1497, should for three centuries and a half have remained without 

 a light to mark the turning-point in the high-road to India, China, 

 and the East. 



Banka Strait. — A new sur\^ey of this strait has been completed by 

 Mr. Stanton, r.n., and his assistant Mr. Eeed, in H.M.S. Saracen^ in 

 the course of which it has been discovered that a much better 

 channel exists than has hitherto been in use. The chart of it has 

 been immediately published, on the scale of a quarter of an inch to 

 a mile, and is in general circulation. In the gulf of Siam six of the 

 coast sheets on the same scale, resulting from the survey of Mr. 

 Eichards, r.n., have been published during the past year. Two 

 sheets also of the west coast of Sumatra, on the scale of xV^h 

 of an inch, with 20 plans of anchorages, from surveys by Dutch 

 officers, have also been recently published at the Admiralty. 



China. — The requirements of the war have led to the publication 

 of a general chart of the coast of China, from Hongkong to the gulf 

 of Pechili, on the scale of l-^^ ths of an inch to a degree. Three sheets 

 also of the Si Kiang, or West river, on a scale of tV^^s of an inch to a 

 mile, from a sketch survey by Lieut. Bullock, r.n., have been pub- 

 lished, and also three corrected sheets of the Canton river, on a scale 

 of 3 inches, and Wusung river, by Commander Ward and staff, on 

 a scale of 3 inches to a mile. A map of the north-eastern provinces 

 of China, from Chusan to the China Wall, on the scale of xw^hs of 

 an inch, and another of the country between the gulf of Pechili 

 and Pekin, on the scale of iVths of an inch, have also been pre- 

 pared from the best available documents by Mr. Edward J. Powell, 



