raine's islet opening. 329 



forms the southern boundary of Raine's Islet opening, 

 which is about nine miles wide from north to south, 

 having that Islet and its reef in its centre. The 

 reef of Rhine's Islet is a small detached one, about 

 two miles long, from W.N.W. to E.S.E., and about 

 a mile broad in the transverse direction. It is very 

 steep (sloping in one place at an angle of 55°), and 

 has deep water all round. About one mile north of 

 Raine's Islet, bottom was reached with ] GO fathoms, 

 and with ISO about two and a half miles north-east 

 of it. On the southern side of it no bottom was 

 reached till close up to the breakers of the Great 

 Detached reef, when soundings of 1J5 and 200 

 fathoms were made, bringing up fine coral sand. 



From the northern side of Pandora's Entrance, in 

 11° 20', the outer line of the Barrier runs in a 

 slightly curved line, nearly due north, as far as 

 Anchor Key, in lat. 9° 25'. For forty miles north of 

 Pandora's Entrance, the linear reefs are very long 

 and closely connected, with very few gaps, and 

 those remarkably small. Beyond this, however, or 

 N. of lat. 10° 40', they begin to change that cha- 

 racter, and from that point to Flinders' Entrance, 

 in lat. 9° 40', consist of numerous small spots and 

 patches, very close together, so close as to afford no 

 good entrance for shipping, but still not actually 

 connected into one solid ridge, but forming clusters 

 of submarine pinnacles or towers, as it were, 

 with a depth of about 15 or 30 fathoms between 

 them. They still preserve the form of a barrier, 



