266 
SIR RODERICK I. MURCHISON’S ADDRESS. [May 24, 1858. 
year 1849), was selected for this service. The ship being well fitted 
for deep sea sounding, a few deep casts were made in the Atlantic 
and in the Indian Ocean on the passage out. First the lead was 
dropped at the site of the Devil Hock, in the North Atlantic, which 
has been so often reported, and also at the Hannah Shoal, in 10° 7 'n. 
and 27° 32' w., and no bottom found with 2000 fathoms of line : these 
two vigias then, as far as a radius of 50 miles each extends, are 
swept from our charts. In 4° 16' n. and 28° 42' w. bottom was got at 
2100 fathoms. In 2° 42' n. and 28° 44' w. bottom was struck in 1080 
fathoms ; at 5 miles south of the Equator also 1080 fathoms ; these 
two casts are respectively at 90 miles north and south of St. Paul’s 
Isle. In 4° 16' s. and 28° 42' w. got bottom in 2100 fathoms ; in 
26° 46' s. and 23° 52' w. struck bottom in 2700 fathoms ; this last 
sounding is important, as it is only 350 miles to the westward of 
a cast of 2426 fathoms, obtained by Captain Sir James Eoss in the 
year 1839. In the Indian Ocean the casts obtained were 1400 and 
1110 fathoms, near the supposed Brunswick and Atalanta Shoals, which 
do not exist ; in 16^-° s. and 59° e. got bottom with 1400 fathoms ; 
in 5° 30' s. and 61° 40' e. bottom in 2254 fathoms, thus prov- 
ing the non-existence of the Bose, Galley , Swift , and Bridgewater 
Shoals. 
Ceylon . — Although no new surveys of this coast have recently 
been made, yet a valuable addition to the hydrography of this 
island arises from the publication at the Admiralty of two charts, on 
a scale of a quarter of an inch to the mile, extending from Colombo on 
the west, round the south coast, including the dangerous shoals 
named by the Portuguese the Bassas , and the east coast, comprising 
the rocks near Pigeon Island, off Trincomalee (where the Ava was 
recently wrecked), as far as Point Pedro. A new plan has also 
been compiled from various authorities of the harbour at Point de 
Galle. We do not know with whom it rests to make a complete 
survey of these coasts, but, whether it lie with H.M. Government 
or the East India Company, no time should be lost in setting it on 
foot, if we do not wish to hear of other losses in addition to that of 
the Ava, although it does not appear that that wreck was in any 
way the fault of the chart. 
China. — In my last Anniversary Address I had the satisfaction of 
announcing to you that Captain Bate, r.n., the surveyor of Palawan, 
was appointed to H.M.S. Actceon , for the examination of the coast 
of Tartary. Alas, how little do we know of the future ! Hardly had 
betaken command of his ship, and prepared for his campaign, when 
