Winds and currents .] 
TERRA. AUSTRALIS. 
287 
Along the north coast of Terra Australis, the current seems 
to run as the wind blows. In March, before the south-east monsoon 
was regularly set in, I found no determinate current until the end of 
the month, when Timor was in sight, and it then set westward, three 
quarters of a mile an hour; but in the November following, I carried 
it all the way from Cape Arnhem, as captain Bligh had done from 
Torres' Strait in September 1792; the rate being from half a mile 
to one mile and a quarter in the hour. 
The navigation along the tropical part of the East Coast, within 
the Barrier Reefs, is not likely to be soon followed, any more than 
that round the shores of the Gulph of Carpentaria ; nor does much 
remain to be said upon them, beyond what will be found in this Book 
II, and in the charts ; and in speaking of the outer navigation, my 
remarks will be more perspicuous and useful if I accompany a ship 
from Port Jackson, through Torres’ Strait ; pointing out the courses 
to be steered, and the precautions to be taken for avoiding the 
dangers. It is supposed that the ship has a time keeper, whose rate 
of going and error from mean Greenwich time have been found at 
Sydney Cove, taking its longitude at 151 0 lT 49" east; and that the 
commander is not one who feels alarm at the mere sight of breakers : 
without a time keeper I scarcely dare recommend a ship to go through 
Torres’ Strait ; and from timidity in the commander, perhaps more 
danger is to be anticipated than from rashness. The best season 
for sailing is June or July; and it must not be earlier than March, 
nor later than the end of September. 
On quitting Port Jackson, the course to be steered is N. E. by E. 
by compass, to longitude about 155- , when the land will be fifty 
leagues off; then North, also by compass, as far as latitude 34°. 
Thus far no danger lies in the way ; but there is then the Cato’s 
Bank, a dry sand frequented by birds and surrounded with a reef, 
and further northward is Wreck Reef, both discovered in the future 
part of this voyage. Wreck Reef consists of six distinct patches of 
coral, extending twenty miles east and west ; upon four of them 
(Atlas, 
Plate X.) 
