SURVEY ENTRANCE OF PORT JACKSON. 4S 



reported to be quite unfit for surveying- purposes^ 

 was sold to her former owner; and the Bramble 

 was re-commissioned as tender to the Rattlesnake, 

 and continued under the command of Lieut. Yule. 

 Ten additional men were entered on board, increas- 

 ing- our complement to 190 officers and men, of 

 whom 36 were placed on board the schooner. After 

 a thoroug-h refit, both vessels were at length quite 

 ready for sea. 



Meanwhile a minute survey was made by Lieu- 

 tenants Dayman and Simpson of the inner entrance 

 to Port Jackson, where a reef, called the Sow and 

 Pigs, (distinguished by a beacon and a hght vessel,) 

 in the middle of the passage, leaves only a narrow 

 available channel on either side. The exact boun- 

 daries of them, with the depth of water, were to 

 be determined, especially to ascertain whether a 

 line-of-battle ship, with her full armament, could 

 pass into the harbour. The shoalest part of the 

 west channel was found to have 21 feet, and of the 

 east 24 feet at low water (the rise and fall of tide 

 being from 5 to 8 feet); consequently, at high 

 water there would be room for a three-decker to 

 enter.* This work was in connexion with a pro- 

 posed dry dockt on Cockatoo Island, above Sydney, 



* It was found by comparison with Lieut. Roe's survey, made 

 25 years before, that the inner edge of the shoal had extended 

 considerably to the southward. 



t This has for several years been under construction ; its 

 importance will appear more evident, when it is considered that a 



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