Torres' Strait .] 
TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
339 
At ten o'clock, the top of the largest island bore S. 74° E. five 
or six miles, we had reefs at the distance of half a mile to a mile on 
each beam, and I then found that we were to the south of the Inves- 
tigator’s track; but the channel being clear a-head, and taking a 
direction nearly straight for Cape York, I steered onward, being 
rather pleased than sorry at having thus got by accident into a new 
route. Darnley’s Island was seen from the mast head before' eleven ; 
and when the top of Murray’s Island boreE. i c S. it was set at 
N.N.W., the depth being then 52 fathoms on a bottom of small stones, 
coral, and shells. The great line of reefs which had been kept on 
the larbord beam of the Investigator, was now on the starbord beam 
of the schooner; but we had also a great mass of reefs on the other 
side, forming between them a kind of channel from two to four 
miles broad, leading south-westward. We ran on at the rate of five 
knots until noon, when the depth was 25 fathoms, soft sand, and 
our situation as under. 
Latitude observed to the south, 
Longitude brought on, 
Murray’s I., top of the largest, 
south-westernmost. 
9 ° 58 ^' 
143 45 
N. 78 E. 
N. 82 E. 
The channel was now five or six miles wide, and no interrup- 
tion yet appeared; but breakers were seen a-head before two o’clock, 
and seemed to connect the reefs to leeward with those on the 
weather side; and there being a small opening on the starbord beam, 
we bore away north-west through it, towards the Investigator’s track. 
Other reefs, however, obstructed the way, upon one of which was a 
dry bank ; and seeing a sort of middle channel within them, we 
hauled up W. by S. into it, and afterwards S. W. The sea did not 
break upon these reefs, and the sun being on the starbord bow, pre-* 
vented us from knowing how they lay to leeward. At four, the 
coral bottom was seen under the schooner, and the depth was no 
more than 2 fathoms ; we tacked immediately, and in ten minutes 
were able to weather the end of the reef at the outlet of the middle 
1803 . 
October, 
Saturday 22, 
