h the like
result. The Bramble, when ordered by signal to point out the anchorage
which Lieutenant Yule had found a week before, at once passed through an
opening in the northern margin of the reef connected with the Duperre
Isles, and brought in the smooth and moderately deep water inside, but it
was not judged safe for us to follow, so the pinnace was hoisted
in-board, and the ship kept underweigh all night.

August 6th.

We passed out to sea to the southward by a wide and clear channel between
the Duperre and Jomard Islands. The former are five in number, all
uninhabited, small, low, and thickly covered with trees. They extend over
a space of about six miles on the northern margin of a large atoll or
annular reef extending eleven miles in one direction and seven in
another, with several openings leading into the interior, which forms a
navigable basin afterwards called Bramble Haven. Inside the greatest
depth found was twenty fathoms, with numerous small coral patches showing
themselves so clearly as easily to be avoided--outside, the water
suddenly deepens to no bottom with one hundred fathoms of line, at the
distance of a mile from its edge.

WESTERN ISLANDS OF THE LOUISIADE.

For several days we continued making traverses off and on the line of
barrier reefs extending to the westward, obtaining negative soundings,
and occasionally communicating by signal with the Bramble, which was
meanwhile doing the inshore part of the work. The next islet seen was Ile
Lejeune of D'Urville, situated in latitude 10 degrees 11 minutes South
and longitude 151 degrees 50 minutes East, eight miles to the westward of
the nearest of the Duperre group, with a wide intervening passage. The
sea-face of the barrier now becomes continuous for twenty-one miles
further, its northern side broken into numerous openings, leading into
shoal water. It is, in fact, an elongated, almost linear atoll, with
islands scattered along its sheltered margin. After this, the barrier
becomes broken up into a series of small reefs, with passages between,
still preserving a westerly trend, until it ends in longitude 150 degrees
58 minutes East. Several small, low islets are scattered along its
course; of these the Sandy Isles come first, three in number, two of them
mere sandbanks, and the third thinly covered with trees, apparently a
kind of Pandanus. The neighbouring Ushant Island (supposed to be that
named Ile Ouessant by Bougainville) is larger and dens