continued gale of wind, so that we had no opportunity of making any very careful observation upon its shores. There can, however, be very little more worth knowing of them, as I apprehend the difficulty of landing is too great ever to expect to gain much information; for it is only in Shark’s Bay that a vessel can anchor with safety.”
On the 11th Aug. 1825, the secretary of the Admiralty Wrote to Commander King as follows:–
“Sir,– I have received, and communicated to my Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, your letter of the 22d of last month, reporting the final completion of the service upon which you have been employed since the year 1817, in regard to the survey of the coasts of New Holland, the subsequent arrangement of the charts, and the preparation of a set of sailing directions; and I am commanded by their lordships to express to you their approbation of your labors. I am, &c.
Commander King’s “Narrative of the Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia,” was published by Murray in 1826 ; and his “Atlas,” by the Hydrographical Office at the Admiralty. Of the latter, the following review appeared in the United Service Journal:–
“The work before us is contained principally in eight sheets, comprising the north-east, the north-west, and the western coasts of Australia; the former of which was so nearly fatal to our great circumnavigator Cook. The first sheet commences with the Northumberland Islands; and includes the coast between lat. 21° 50' S. and l8° 40' S. The second from lat. 19° S. to lat. 14° 30' S.; and the third contains the north-eastern extreme of Australia and Torres Strait. The anxiety of Captain Flinders to examine the great Gulf ot Carpentaria, induced him to defer for another opportunity the survey of this part of the coast, although it is by far the most dangerous of the whole continent. The shores of this extensive country on either side, from their southern extreme, are bold and comparatively free from dangers. But no sooner are the warm latitudes entered, than they become fringed with coral reefs. From Hervey’s Bay on the east, in the latitude of 25° S., to the mouth of Shark’s Bay on the west, in nearly the same parallel, the coral reefs prevail, to the terror and disquiet of the navigator. Mount Warning and Cape Tribulation, so aptly named by Cook, prepares him and introduces him among them.
“Although no pains seem to have been spared by Captain King in laying down all the reefs that came in his way, the time when we shall see complete charts of the intertropical coasts of Australia is yet very far distant. The charts are given on the scale of six inches to the degree of longitude. Much, however, remains to be added to them, although the