r,3S 



HYDROGRAPHY. 



bound eastward. Care should be taken in passing to the south of Santa 

 Cruz Island, off which there is an extensive reef, projecting to the 

 westward : this requires to be avoided, and in order to do so, I would 

 prefer to take the inside of that island. This, I believe, is the only 

 danger. The tides, though irregular as to time of running, set 

 through the strait, the flood to the northward and westward, and 

 the ebb to the southward and eastward. In the small port of Caldera, 

 their velocity by the log was found to be 2 miles an hour, but they 

 must be much stronger than this in the strait. It is high water, full 

 and change, 9h. 30m. a.m. 



In opening out Caldera Bay, if the time is not favorable to pro- 

 ceed through the Strait, an anchorage may be sought there : its posi- 

 tion is well known by the Square Fort. It requires no direction for 

 seeking this harbor, except what the chart furnishes. The anchor- 

 age is in 7 to 10 fathoms, coral-sand bottom. The land immediately 

 round the bay is low, with a sandy beach. A heavy growth of 

 wood rises from it, with all the luxuriance of the tropics. Eight 

 miles east of Caldera is Samboangan, the convict settlement . of the 

 Philippine Islands. The coast between these two places is low and 

 well wooded. There is anchorage off Samboangan, but the cross-tides 

 render a vessel liable to foul her anchors in the rocky bottom. It is 

 tolerably well protected by the Island of Santa Cruz, which lies 2 

 miles from the shore, is 3 miles in length including the reef, by 

 which it is surrounded. The anchorage in the roadstead is with 

 the steeple bearing east a little northerly, from half to three-fourths 

 of a mile distant, the east end of Santa Cruz Island, south-by-west, 

 and Point Balota south 50° east. Supplies may be obtained here, 

 but unless there is a necessity for it, I would not advise stopping, 

 particularly if the weather should be favorable for passing through the 

 strait. In case the navigator should prefer it, he may pass into the 

 Sea of Celebes, to the southward, through the Pilas Channel, at the 

 west end of Basillan, and thence towards the Tolour Islands. 



S00L00 ARCHIPELAGO AND ISLAND. 



This archipelago consists of some 80 islands, great and small ; they 

 lie scattered across the space between the Islands of Borneo and that 

 of Mindanao and Basillan, and form the southern boundary of the 



