836 
A VOYAGE TO 
[North Coast. 
October P crc cived. At three o’clock, in steering westward, the last reefs 
Thursdays were out of sight astern ; and nothing more had been seen at seven, 
when we hauled to the wind for the night. An amplitude observed 
at sunset, with the schooner’s head W. by S., gave 6 ° 2' east variation. 
Friday 2i, We tacked every two or three hours, until daylight; and 
then bore away W. S. W. by compass, to make the south side of the 
Pandora’s Entrance, which I had not seen in the Investigator. Soon 
after eight o’clock, breakers came in sight; and we stood off and on 
till noon, to fix their latitude and longitude, and ascertain our posi- 
tion with respect to Murray’s Islands before entering the Strait. 
The sun was vertical, and therefore difficult to be observed; but in 
taking Mr. Aken s observation on one side and mine on the other, 
which differed only gj, the mean latitude io° of-', could not be far 
wrong. The reef in sight was shown by this observation to be on 
the south side of the Pandora’s Entrance, as I wished ; and its north 
end will lie in io° 59' south, and longitude by the time keeper 
144 0 40' east. We bore away so soon as the observation was ob- 
tained, and in passing close round the north end, got soundings at 
two casts, in 7 and 5 fathoms. 
r L his reef lies N. N. E. and S. S. W., and is about seven miles 
long with a breadth from one to three miles; its form is nearly that 
of a boot, and the outer edges are probably dry at low tide ; but 
there was a considerable space within, where the water looked blue, 
as if very deep. The origin of that class of islands which abound in 
the Great Ocean, under the names of Bow, Lagoon, &c., may here 
be traced. The exterior bank of coral will, in the course of years, 
become land, as in them ; whilst the interior water will preserve its 
depth to a longer period, and form a lagoon, with no other outlet 
than perhaps one or two little openings for canoes or boats. In 
Mr. Dalrymple’s chart of the^Pandora’s track, there is a dry bank 
marked on the north-west part of the reef ; but this commencement 
of the metamorphosis was not visible to us, probably from its being 
covered by the tide, for it was then near high water. In some future 
