des are bold to. In a North 70 degrees
East direction from it, at the distance of two miles and three-quarters,
is a sandbank with three fathoms; it was discovered by the ships Claudine
and Mary, on their passage through Torres Strait, when it was named
LARPENT'S BANK.*

(*Footnote. It is near the west end of a shoal of five miles in length,
extending in an east and west direction, a few feet only below the
surface of the water. Roe manuscript.)

...

APPENDIX A. SECTION 3.

DESCRIPTION OF THE WINDS AND WEATHER, AND OF THE PORTS AND COAST BETWEEN
WESSEL'S ISLANDS AND CLARENCE STRAIT.

In the sea that separates the land of New Guinea and the islands of Timor
Laut and Arroo from the north coast of Australia, the winds are
periodical, and are called the east and west monsoons, for such is their
direction in the mid-sea. Near the Coast of New Holland the regularity of
these winds is partly suspended by the rarefied state of the atmosphere;
this produces land and sea-breezes, but the former are principally from
the quarter from which the winds are blowing in the mid sea. The usual
course of the winds near the coast in the months of April, May, and June,
is as follows: after a calm night, the land-wind springs up at daylight
from South or South-South-East; it then usually freshens, but, as the sun
gets higher, and the land becomes heated, gradually decreases. At noon
the sea-wind rushes in towards the land, and generally blows fresh from
East; at sunset it veers to the North-East, and falls calm, which lasts
the whole night, so that if a ship, making a course, does not keep at a
moderate distance from the land, she is subject to delay; she would not,
however, probably have so fresh a breeze in the day time. Later in the
season of the easterly monsoon, in August, September, and October, calms
are frequent, and the heat is sultry and oppressive; this weather
sometimes lasts for a fortnight or three weeks at a time. The easterly
monsoon commences about the 1st of April, with squally, rainy weather,
but, in a week or ten days, settles to fine weather and steady winds in
the offing, and regular land and sea breezes, as above described, near
the coast. It ceases about the latter end of November or early part of
December; the westerly monsoon may then be expected to blow strong, and
perhaps with regularity.

This is the rainy season, and is doubtless an unwholesome time; Captain
Flinders' crew experienced much sickness in h