102 
A VOYAGE TO 
1802. 
pctober. 
[East Coast. 
not improbable. The opening by which we passed out, is in 18 0 53', 
and 148° 2' ; so that, did the Barrier Reefs terminate here, their extent 
would be near 350 miles in a straight line ; and in all this space, there 
seems to be no large opening. Mr. Swain did, indeed, get out at 
the latitude 22* ; but it was by a long, and very tortuous channel. 
Of what extent our opening may be, is uncertain ; but since captain 
Cook had smooth water in running to the west and northward to 
Cape Tribulation, where he first saw the reefs, it should seem to be 
not very great; certainly, as I think, not exceeding twenty, and 
perhaps not five leagues. I therefore assume it as a great probabi- 
lity, that with the exception of this, and perhaps several small open- 
ings, our Barrier Reefs are connected with the Labyrinth of captain 
Cook ; and that they reach to Torres’ Strait and to New Guinea, in 
g e south; or through 14 0 of latitude and 9 0 of longitude ; which is not 
to be equalled in any other known part of the world. 
The breadth of the barrier seems to be about fifteen leagues in 
its southern part, but diminishes to the northward ; for at the North- 
umberland Islands it is twelve, and near our opening the breadth is 
not more than seven or eight leagues. The reefs seen in lati- 
tude 17!°, after we got through, being forty leagues from the coast, 
I consider to be distinct banks out at sea ; as I do those discovered 
by Mons. de Bougainville in 1 5^, which lie still further off'. So far 
northward as I explored the Barrier Reefs, they are unconnected 
with the land ; and continue so to latitude 16 0 ; for, as before said, 
captain Cook saw none until he had passed Cape Tribulation. 
An arm of the sea is inclosed between the barrier and the 
coast, which is at first twenty-five or thirty leagues wide ; but is 
contracted to twenty, abreast of Broad Sound, and to nine leagues at 
Cape Gloucester; from whence it seems to go on diminishing, till, 
a little beyond Cape Tribulation, reefs are found close to the shore. 
Numerous islands lie scattered in this inclosed space ; but so far as we 
are acquainted, there are no other coral banks in it than those by which 
some of the islands are surrounded ; so that being sheltered from 
