212 Ritchie's reef. 



shape of a scythe. A hill 145 feet high, the loftiest 

 point of the group, rises near the centre of Treraouille, 

 the north-east island, off the north-west end of which 

 a ledge extends in the direction of an out-lying reef, 

 bearing N. 55° W. (mag.) nine miles and a half, 

 which places it in lat. 20° 1?' S. and long 0° 26 W. 

 of Swan River ; or 1 15" 21' East. This could be no 

 other than that which we had so often looked for as 

 Ritchie*s Reef, as our former tracks to the westward 

 had assured us that it did not lie in that direction. 

 In latitude it agreed with the position given to it on 

 the charts, but in longitude it differed considerably, 

 lying full half a degree to the eastward. It there- 

 fore appeared not to be a discovery of Lieutenant 

 Ritchie's, as it had been not only seen previously 

 by the French, who had considered it as a reef 

 extending off Tremouille Island, but many years 

 before by Captain Gierke, who placed it in lat. 

 20° 18' S., nine or ten miles N.W. (mag.) from 

 what he thought to be Rosemary Island, but which 

 it is very evident was Tremouille. The name then 

 of Gierke's Reef should be given it instead of 

 Ritchie's. 



Mr. Fitzmaurice having seen plenty of wallaby 

 on the larger islands, a party of us went on shore 

 in the evening, after securing observations for the 

 rates of the chronometers on a small islet called Flag 

 Islet, near the centre of the rocky cluster fronting 

 the eastern side of Hermite Island. This can be 

 recognized by it alone having a sandy point on the 



