the
lead, may be easily avoided, as on the south side of the shoal the water
deepens gradually from four to seventeen or eighteen fathoms. The shores
on the side of Kangaroo Island are bold and rocky, whilst on the north
side, on Yorke's Peninsula, they are low and sandy. In working up in the
night, stand no nearer to the north shore than nine fathoms, or to the
southward than twelve fathoms. You will have from sixteen to twenty
fathoms in the fair way--fine grey sand, mixed with small pieces of
shell. In working up St. Vincent's Gulf, you may stand to the eastward in
six fathoms, and towards the Troubridge Shoal in nine fathoms. The
prevailing winds are from the south-west to south-east, especially in the
summer months, when the sea breeze sets in about nine o'clock. The
strength of tide in the Gulf is very irregular, with a strong south-west
wind, the flood runs up at the rate of about two miles an hour, whilst
with a northerly wind it is scarcely perceptible. The anchorage in
Holdfast Bay is hardly safe in the winter months, as it is quite open to
north-west, west, and south-west winds, which, when blowing hard, raise a
short tumbling sea. The ground is a fine sand, almost covered with weeds,
so that when the anchor once starts, the weeds being raked up under the
crown, will in a great measure prevent its again holding. In the summer
months it may be considered a perfectly safe anchorage, if due caution is
exercised in giving the vessel cable in time. The best anchorage for a
large vessel is with the summit of Mount Lofty, bearing east in six
fathoms. A small vessel will lay better close in, just allowing her depth
of water sufficient to ride in.

"The pilot station for Port Adelaide is about five miles north of
Holdfast Bay. In running up keep in five fathoms, until abreast of the
flag-staff on the beach, when a pilot will come on board. It is always
high water in Port Adelaide morning and evening, and consequently low
water in the middle of the day. In the present state of the harbour, no
vessel drawing more than sixteen feet water ought to go into the port.
Several very serious accidents have befallen vessels in this port, for
which the harbour itself ought certainly to be held blameless."

"Vessels," he adds, "from Sydney, or from the eastward, bound to Port
Adelaide, having arrived at Cape Howe, should shape a course for Hogan's
Group in Bass' Straits, when off which, with a northerly wind, the best
passage thr