e ship afterwards rode N. N. E. till
daylight. The first of the flood therefore came from the N. N. E. and the
latter part from N. W.; it was high water at _one hour before_ the moon's
passage, and the rise at least three fathoms, or eighteen feet. This time
of high water coincides with that of Broad Sound; but it is remarkable,
that at the Percy Isles, lying between them, it should be three hours
earlier. The rise in Broad Sound was five fathoms, and three, or more,
amongst the reefs; whereas at the Percy Isles, there was nothing on the
shore to indicate a higher tide than two fathoms.

In the morning we steered E. N. E., with a light air from the southward;
the brig was ahead, and at half past nine, made the signal for immediate
danger; upon which the stream anchor was dropped in 16 fathoms. The tide
ran one mile and a half to the E. N. E, and this leading me to expect
some opening in that direction, I sent the master to sound past the brig;
and on his finding deeper water we followed, drifting with the tide. At
eleven he made the signal for being on a shoal, and we came to, in 35
fathoms, broken coral and sand; being surrounded by reefs, except to the
westward from whence we had come. On the outside were high breakers, not
more than three or four miles distant; these terminated at E. by S., and
between them and other reefs further on, there seemed a possibility of
finding an outlet; but no access to it could be had, except by a winding
circuit amongst the great mass of banks to the southward, which it was
not advisable to make upon such an uncertainty. I therefore determined to
remain at the present anchorage till low water, when the reefs would be
dry, and the channels between them, if any such there were, would be
visible: and should nothing better then present itself, to steer
north-westward, as close within the line of the high breakers as
possible, until an opening should be found.

The latitude observed to the north and south, at this fifth anchorage
amongst the reefs, was 20 deg. 53' 15"; longitude by time keeper, 151 deg. 5'
east. In the afternoon, I went upon the reef with a party of the
gentlemen; and the water being very clear round the edges, a new
creation, as it was to us, but imitative of the old, was there presented
to our view. We had wheat sheaves, mushrooms, stags horns, cabbage
leaves, and a variety of other forms, glowing under water with vivid
tints of every shade betwixt green, purple, brown, a