SAILING DIRECTIONS. 
321 
topped hill on the eastern side of the strait, bearing S. 59° E. A. 
Then steer E.b.S., keeping the lead going, and hauling to Sec^fl. 
the north if the soundings are less than seven fathoms, N. Coast, 
until the strait is opened bearing S.E.b.S., when you may 
haul in for Luxmoore Head, and anchor at will. 
The narrowest part of the strait is where the low, sandy 
extremity, Point Brace, bears S. 40o E. ; the channel then is 
from seventeen to eighteen fathoms deep,- and shoals sud- 
denly on its south, but gradually on its north side: it is 
about a mile and a half wide. 
APSLEY STRAIT is forty miles long, and from one 
to three broad; the widest part being at the north end : the 
southern end, for five or six miles from the outlet, is very 
rocky ; the south entrance is in latitude 1 1° 45' ; the flood 
sets to the southward, and the ebb, from Van Diemen’s 
Gulf out of Clarence Strait, runs through the strait to the 
north, which must cause many shoals off the south en- 
trance ; the depth is generally from ten to thirteen fathoms, 
but is very irregular towards the south end ; at low water 
many parts are dry, which leave the channels very intricate. 
We passed over it at high water without knowing our 
danger, for the stream of the tide carried us through the 
deepest part of the channel. 
BATHURST ISLAND is from thirty to thirty-three miles 
in extent, having a circumference of an hundred and twenty 
miles. Gordon Bay, on its western side, affords a good 
shelter in the easterly monsoon ; it is ten miles wide, and 
six deep, and terminated by Port Hurd, the entrance to 
which is fronted by a bar, having twelve or fourteen feet 
on it at low water. Near the south-western head of the 
bay two projecting cliffy points (Twin Cliffs) terminate a 
VoL. II. Y 
