COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 3S7 
which in the event of bad weather may be re- 1820. 
tained as long as is requisite or convenient. No Aug. 1 6 . 
time is lost by the delay, for the anchor may be 
dropped in the ship’s immediate track; and, if 
the cargo consists of live animals, such as horses, 
cattle, or sheep, grass may be obtained for them 
from the islands near the anchorage. 
In the outer passage, the sea is strewed with 
numerous reefs, many yet unknown*, which ren- 
der the navigation at night extremely danger- 
ous ; and if, on approaching the part where 
it is intended to enter the reefs, the weather 
should be thick, and the sun too clouded at 
noon to procure an observation for the latitude, 
the navigator is placed in a very anxious and a 
very unenviable situation; for the currents are 
so strong, that the position of the ship is by no 
means sufficiently known, to risk running to lee- 
ward to make the reefs. The ensuing night 
must, therefore, in all probability be passed in 
the greatest uncertainty, and in the vicinity of 
extensive coral reefs. 
* When this sheet was in the press, an account was published 
in one of the daily newspapers, ( Morning Herald, ,3rd of March, 
1825,) recording the discovery of some low coral islands and reefs, 
by the ship Avon, Sept, 18, 1823, in latitude 19° 40' S., longitude 
158° 6' E. 
2 C 2 
