nd
variable, shifting between South-West and North-East by the northward,
and accompanied by occasional squalls and rain. It became a matter of
difficulty to determine when we got into the south-east trade; it was not
until we had reached latitude 20 degrees South that the wind--light on
the preceding day, but on this strong, with squalls and rain--appeared
steady between East-South-East and South-South-East and this carried us
down to Sandy Cape.

REEFS OF THE CORAL SEA.

In traversing the Coral Sea, the numerous detached reefs were so
carefully avoided that we saw none of them--thus in one sense it is to be
regretted that the passage through them of a surveying vessel, with
seventeen chronometers on board, was productive of no beneficial result
by determining the exact position of any one of these dangerous reefs,
most of which are only approximately laid down upon the charts.*

(*Footnote. About this time a new reef was discovered during the passage
from Cape Deliverance to Sydney of H.M.S. Meander, Captain the Honourable
H. Keppel. While this sheet was passing through the press, I saw an
announcement of the total wreck upon Kenn Reef--one of those the position
of which is uncertain--of a large merchant ship, the passengers and crew
of which, 33 in number, fortunately however, succeeded in reaching
Moreton Bay in their boat--a distance of 400 miles.)

PRACTICAL RESULTS OF THE SURVEY.

The most important practical result of Captain Stanley's survey of the
Louisiade Archipelago and the south coast of New Guinea, was the
ascertaining the existence of a clear channel of at least 30 miles in
width along the southern shores of these islands, stretching east and
west between Cape Deliverance and the north-east entrance to Torres
Strait--a distance of about 600 miles. This space was so traversed by the
two vessels of the expedition without any detached reefs being
discovered, that it does not seem probable that any such exist there,
with the exception of the Eastern Fields of Flinders, the position and
extent of which may be regarded as determined with sufficient accuracy
for the purposes of navigation, and the reefs alluded to in Volume 1,
which, if they exist at all, and are not merely the Eastern Fields laid
down far to the eastward of their true position, must be sought for
further to the southward. The shores in question may now be approached
with safety, and vessels may run along them either by day or night under