CITY OF LONDONDERRY". 
The natural advantages of Derry as a port, were perhaps among the principal motives which 
led to its selection as the focus of king - James’s plantation of Ulster. When the north was first 
converted into “ shire-ground,” by Sir John Perrot, the county was called the county ot 
Coleraine, and Derry had apparently no existence as a port; but the bar at the mouth of the 
river Bann soon led to a preference of the deeper and more extended waters of the Foyle. 
The rocky coast of Doneg'al, on the W. of Lough Foyle, abounds with deep and often 
land-locked inlets, but the prevailing westerly winds render them difficult of access; on the E. 
the bold basaltic cliffs of Antrim are equally unfavourable, but the port of Derry affords ample 
water at the quays, with safe anchorage in all weathers. 
It has been already stated, that the city lies about 19 miles above the entrance of the lough, 
the approach to which is made known by the light-house, on the island of Innistrahull, and will 
be much facilitated by two others, now erecting on Ennishowen Head, which are intended 
to serve as guiding lights past the great Tun Bank. The mountains of Benyevenagh, opposite 
Ennishowen head, is also a conspicuous landmark. Good charts and sailing directions have been 
published by the Admiralty, and at the entrance of the lough there is an establishment of pilots, 
under the Ballast Board. The channel lies under the bold shore of Ennishowen. Its breadth 
from Greencastle up to Redcastle (a distance of 6^ miles,) is about half a mile. It there widens 
a little, but speedily becomes more shallow, and continues so to Quigley’s Point, a distance of 3f 
miles from Redcastle, where the fluctuations of depth are defined by a perch, placed at low-water 
mark, and graduated with a scale of feet in large aud legible characters. A succession of 
flats, consisting of mud and fine sand, extends from Redcastle to Culmore Point, where the 
lough narrows into a river. The channel is provide with buoys throughout. Those in 
the lough are neither sufficiently large, nor disposed in opposite pairs, to mark the width, 
as well as the direction of the channel. They form a single zig-zag chain, and are so far 
asunder that it is impossible to see half the distance between them in hazy weather, which, 
owing to the exhalations of the lough, is frequent. In the river the banks and shoals are 
well defined, both by the buoys, and by extensive salmon-weirs. Access to the lough 
is in stormy weather rendered difficult by an extensive shoal w'hich lies without, and to 
the eastward of the entrance, and is variously called the Tons, the Tuns Shoal, and the 
great Ton Bank, from the Irish conn, “ wave.” It extends in length 2 miles, and is 
and is bounded on one side by a line parallel to the Ennishowen coast—on the other by one 
curved towards the open sea. At each end there is a buoy—the outer one in 6 fathom water, and 
the inner, which is off Magilligan Point, in 4 fathom. The former is attached to a chain, capable 
of holding a ship of 400 tons ; yet such is the violence of the sea that it seldom lasts more than 
two or three years. The expense of renewal is £55, and a further annual expense of about £50 
is incurred in the restoration of the buoys, the destruction of which is sometimes imputed to the 
malice of the fishermen, who are charged with destroying them, as being an obstruction to their 
nets. In the finest weather there is generally a run on the shoal, and the attempt to cross it in a 
boat is always dangerous. Small vessels can sail into the lough by passing on the S. of the shoal, 
and between it and Magilligan Point; this, however, is advisable for none but steamers, except 
under very favourable circumstances. There is a better channel on the northward, along the 
Ennishowen coast. A vessel would be speedily swallowed up in this quicksand, yet it does not 
appear to undergo any change of position, or figure—a nearly complete correspondence existing 
between a survey of it made by Mr. Murdock Mackenzie, nearly eighty years ago, and a recent 
one conducted under the Board of Admiralty by Captain Mudge, by whom the nautical information, 
contained in this Memoir, has been contributed. Three patches of the shoal become dry at low 
water during spring-tides. The continuance of this bank without sensible variation for so long a 
period, is extremely curious, and proves that the currents have in this instance acted with great 
uniformity, depositing and removing the sandy detritus in nearly an equal proportion. 
There is good anchorage for men-of-war and other large ships off Bonnyfoble [Moville], 
abount 2-i miles above Greencastle, in from 6 to 7 fathom water. The anchorage is, however, 
by no means secure for small vessels, when the wind is southerly, as the tide, which at springs 
runs with great velocity, then occasions a short troublesome sea. By the application of steamers 
to tow shipping through the lough the danger of its navigation is greatly diminished, and much 
time saved : by their aid also vessels drawing 19 feet of water have come up to the city, 
although the general limitation is 16 or 17 feet, unless under favourable circumstances of wind 
and tide. 
At the entrance of the lough there is high water at the full and change of the moon at 
6 h. 0 m., A. m., and the rise and fall are with spring-tides from 7 to 9 feet, and with neap-tides 
from 5 to 6. 
At Quigley’s Point, the depth of water on the flats is with spring-tides from 16 to 20, and from 
12 to 13 feet, with neap-tides from 10 to 11 at high water, and from 5 to 6 at low water. At 
