Sailing directions.'] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
293 
September, or later, it is probable some might be taken by landing' a 
party of men, who should silently watch for their coming on shore 
at dusk. I do not know the kind of turtle most common in the 
Strait; at Booby Isle they were hawkes-bill, which furnish the finest 
tortoise shell, but are small and not the best for food. 
The advantage in point of time, which this route presents to a 
ship bound from the Great Ocean to India, or to the Cape of Good 
Hope, will be best seen by a statement of two passages made at the 
same season; the one by Torres' Strait, the other round New Guinea. 
I sailed from Port Jackson in company with the Bridgewater, 
an extra East-Indiaman ; and we made Wreck Reef in eight days. 
From thence the Bridgewater steered round Louisiade, through 
Bougainville’s Strait, Dampier’s Strait, Pitt's Passage, and the Strait 
of Salayer; and arrived at Batavia in eighty-eight days. I left Wreck 
Reef some time afterward, in a small schooner of twenty-nine tons ; 
took ten days to reach Torres’ Strait, three to pass through it, seven- 
teen to reach Coepang Bay, and ten more to pass the longitude of 
Java Head. Adding to these the eight days to Wreck Reef, the 
passage from Port Jackson to Java Head was forty-eight days, includ- 
ing various deviations and stoppages for surveying ; and it was prin- 
cipally made in a vessel which sailed no more than four or five 
knots, when the Bridgewater would have gone six or eight. The 
difference, nevertheless, in favour of Torres’ Strait, was forty days; 
so that it seems within bounds to say, that in going from Port Jack- 
son to India or the Cape of Good Hope, it offers an advantage over 
the northern route of six weeks ; and of four weeks in going from the 
more eastern parts of the Great Ocean. In point of safety, I know 
not whether Torres’ Strait have not also the advantage ; for although 
it be certainly more dangerous than any one of the eastern passages, 
it is doubtful whether it be more so than a four or six weeks extra 
navigation amongst the straits and islands to the east and north of 
New Guinea, where some new shoal, bank, or island is discovered by 
every vessel going that way. For myself, I should not hesitate to 
