n this
part of the mainland, generally speaking a dull monotonous level, is a
hill bearing over the extremity of the reef fronting the south side of
Cairncross, South 45 degrees West, to which Captain Bligh has given the
quaint name of Pudding-Pan Hill. It received this appellation from a
resemblance to an inverted pudding dish, commonly used by sailors, and is
354 feet high. The coast about ten miles to the northward projects a mile
and a half further eastward than is marked in the chart. This error did
not however appear to be so great south of Escape River, where the
character of the coast is low and cliffy, separated by small sandy bays;
instead of a continued line of cliffs as at present represented.

ESCAPE RIVER.

At noon we were in the parallel of the south point of Escape River, in
latitude 10 degrees 58 minutes South, observations and bearings both
agreeing. This river receives its name in record of one of those narrow
escapes to which surveying vessels are subject, Captain King having been
nearly wrecked in the Mermaid. Attempting to enter the river he found it
not to be navigable, a reef extending across its mouth, on which his
vessel struck very heavily.

CORRECT POSITION OF REEFS.

Avoiding Captain King's track, we passed to the eastward of reef x, being
thus afforded a better opportunity of determining its position than he
had. This we did by transit bearings with different points, which placed
it nearly two miles South by East of the spot assigned it on the charts.*

(*Footnote. On mentioning this afterwards to Captain P.P. King, he told
me his survey of that part of the coast had never given him satisfaction;
for there the monsoon blows fresh, and his small vessel was hurried past
without his being able to land in search of better data for the chart.
The reader must not, from these corrections (few, when we consider the
extent of the survey) be led to imagine that our object is to pick out
errors in the surveys of others; but from being in a larger and better
appointed vessel, our opportunities of examination were necessarily
greater than those afforded to Captain King, who was always most anxious
to detect errors in his own charts. Without dwelling on the fact that the
result of our examination afforded us the satisfaction of restoring parts
of the chart, before erroneously corrected, to his original construction,
we would venture to hope that, while desirous as much as possible to
perfect our kno