COASTS OF AUSTRALIA. 
445 
The following afternoon, the man at the mast- 182 ° - 
head reported breakers in the W.N.W., and Nov. 1. 
when I went to examine from thence, I was for 
some time equally deceived: the helm was put 
up, and we bore down towards them, but, as we 
approached, they vanished, and we found we had 
been deceived by the reflection of the sun’s rays 
upon the water*. After being sufficiently assured 
of our mistake, the course was resumed ; and, by 
the following noon, we had passed the parallel 2 . 
of the southernmost limit assigned to these re- 
doubtable rocks. 
When we were on the starboard tack, two 
nights before, the cutter leaked so much, that we 
* The deceptious appearances that are frequently observed at 
sea, such as the reflection of the sun, ripplings occasioned by the 
meeting of two opposite currents, whales asleep upon the surface 
of the water, shoals of fish, fog-banks, and the extraordinary effect 
of mirage , than which, as an optical illusion, nothing is more de- 
ceiving, have doubtless given birth to many of these non-existing 
shoals and islands. Were charts to be published, (one does exist in 
manuscript, in the Hydrographical Office at the Admiralty,) with 
all the islands and dangers laid down that have been reported by 
good and respectable authorities, the navigator would be in a con- 
stant fever of anxiety and alarm for the safety of his vessel. The 
charts of the present day teem with examples of this sort, and 
many islands and reefs are laid down which have not been seen 
since their first discovery, and which, perhaps, never existed at all, 
unless, like Sabrina Island, they were thrown up by a sub-marine 
volcano, and disappeared immediately afterwards. 
