the Ortiz flats much further to the westward than a true S. W. course from the Mount will take them; for with a low river, I have had barely 3 fathoms in the Nereus, with the Mount bearing N. 35° E. by compass, distant 10 leagues. At other times, I have sunk the Mount on a N. 53o E. magnetic bearing, and had as much as 31⁄2 fathoms water; but the river was then well filled.

On the southeastern part of the Ortiz bank, which is there hard stony sand, there is still remaining (in 1813) part of a mast, or beacon, about 12 or 13 feet high. It is in lat. 35° 02′ 15" S.; and 0° 45' west of Mount Video; from which it bears true W. 14° S. 37 miles. There is about 12 or 13 feet alongside of it; 3 fathoms 2 miles to the eastward of it; but not more than 10 or 12 feet, as far as 3 miles S. W. of it. del Indio bears true S. 33o W. 16 or 17 miles from it.

Point

To the distance of full 17 miles southeastward of the Ortiz Beacon, there is generally no more, and often less than 34 fathoms; the bottom tough clay nearest the bank; and in some places farther to the southeastward, soft mud, not more than 34 fathoms.

After sinking the Mount about N. E. by N., and having 34 fathoms, a W. S. W. course will raise the land (if the weather is clear) about Point del Indio, to the eye at the mást head; and probably you will not have more than 34 or at best 34 fathoms. The Mount and the land near Point del Indio, are sometimes visible at the same time.

POINT DEL INDIO, is in lat. about 35° 16' S. and 0° 56' W. of the Mount Video, from which it bears true S. 63° W. distant 50 miles. There is little more than 3 fathoms at the distance of 10 or 11 miles off shore, when the river is in a mean state; farther to the southward, and off Point Piedras, there is only that depth 14 or 15 miles off shore. Very great caution therefore is required in approaching it, and a constant look-out should be kept for the land, as it is very low, and cannot be seen farther than 12 or 13 miles from the deck of a frigate in clear weather.

When the land is barely raised to an eye 19 or 20 feet above the surface of the water, a W. N. W. magnetic course wil lead along shore, between it and the south part of the Ortiz, which is distant about 14 miles from it; and between them there is no where more water than 34, but mostly 34 fathoms. With a high river, I have had 33 fathoms: the nearer the Ortiz, the deeper the water.

In steering up W. N. W. with the land seen from the deck, if clear weather, you will have 3 or 34 fathoms, (yet if the river is low, perhaps some casts of three fathoms,) and raise a remarkable clump of trees called Embudo, which are much taller than the rest, highest at the west end, and lie in lat. 359 06' S.

and in long. 1° 16' 30" west of the Mount Video, or 0° 57′ 30′′ cast of the cathedral of Buenos Ayres. At some distance to the westward of the Embudo trees, there is another clump about the same height, but these being highest at the east end, are sufficiently distinguished not to be mistaken for the true Embudo.

When in 32, or 34 fathoms, the Embudo trees bearing by compass W. S. W., the S. E. end of the Chico bank will bear W. N. W. or thereabouts, 10 or 11 miles: you must now determine from the water your ship draws, the direction of the wind, and state of the weather, whether you will pass between the Chico bank and the shore, or between the Ortiz and the Chico.-I have passed up and down several times between the Chico and the south shore in the Nereus, lightened in her draft to 18 feet 3 inches, but I would never attempt it again from choice, now I am better acquainted with the middle channel between the Chico and the Ortiz, and have every reason to believe that the middle ground, some charts lay down in it, does not exist.

A ship not drawing more than 15 feet, may take either passage; and ought perhaps to prefer that to the southward of the Chico bank, particularly if the wind be well to the southward, as she might take her soundings from the weather shore, and keeping in somewhat more than her own draft, run up along it; and by not deepening above 3 fathoms, would ensure being to the southward of the Chico.

The S. E. end of the Chico bank, bears from the Embudo trees N. 32° E. true, distant 10 miles, and E. 9° N., 13 miles from Atalaya church. Its latitude there is 34° 56′ 30′′ S. and long. 1° 09′ W. of the Mount Video. This bank runs in the direction of N. 52° W. true, or N. 65° W. by compass, about 13 miles to its N. W. end, which is in lat. 34° 48′ 50′′ S., and 0° 47' east of Buenos Ayres' cathedral. From this N. W. end in 14 feet water, Atalaya church bears S. 14° W., distant 11 miles and Point Santiago, forming the Ensenada de Barragan, bears W. 4° N. distant 14 miles from it. The breadth of the Chico does not exceed 2 miles, or perhaps 1 mile, and its inner edge is about 9 miles from the shore. The water between it and the shore is no where more than 34 fathoms, and the deepest water is along the inner edge of the shoal, at the distance of half a mile from it, or less in some places. About midway between it and the shore there is 2 fathoms. On some parts of the Chico there is very little water, and within the limits I have assigned to it, no where more than fourteen feet. There was for some years, the mast of a vessel called the Pandora, which was wrecked on this shoal in lat. 34o 54' S., about 5 miles from its S. E. end, which proved an excellent beacon to guide ships passing it on either side; but it has disappeared.

It is very necessary that three buoys should be placed on this. dangerous shoal, to mark its centre and each end.

To ships drawing less than 15 feet, it is only further necessary to recommend care and attention on approaching Point St. Jago, which forms bushy and distinct; and when it is brought to bear to the southwestward, haul out into the stream of 31 fathoms, to round outside the Spit, which runs about N. W. by compass from Point St. Jago at least 10 or 11 miles; its extreme point, in 2 fathoms, being about 5 miles from the shore. When two remarkable trees on Point Lara are brought to bear S. by E E., or S. S. E. by compass, you are past the Spit. This mark will also lead a ship of that draft of water, clear to the westward of the Spit, in running in towards Ensenada.

After passing the Spit off Point St. Jago, in 31⁄2 fathoms, a W. by N. northerly course by compass, will lead up to the outer road of Buenos Ayres, where any ship may safely anchor in the water she draws, if the river is low.

Frigates, or any vessels drawing more than 16 feet water, should barely raise the land about Point del Indio to the eye on deck, and borrow nearest the Ortiz: more particularly when the Embudo trees are brought to bear as far as S. W. by W. (magnetic ;) for with the Embudo bearing from S. W. to S. S. W., the bottom is flat, off to three fathoms, full 7 miles from the the shore, and chiefly hard clay. Therefore, when the Embudo trees bear W. S. W. by compass, and you are about 9 or 10 miles off shore in 3 fathoms, if you have a leading wind haul N. W. by W. or more northerly, as may be required to clear the S. E. tail of the Chico, and you will soon deepen your water to 4 fathoms, and more, in the middle channel, between the Chico and the Ortiz shoal. The fair course through between them, is about N. W. by. W. W. (magnetic) and in mid-channel, the land can but just be distinguished from the quarterdeck of a frigate. When the Embudo trees bear S. 200 W. by compass, you will be abreast of the S. E. end of the Chico, and may either take your shoal soundings along its northern or outer edge, to about 3 fathoms, if the wind is southerly, or if the wind be northerly, or easterly, borrow into a convenient depth along the southern edge of the Ortiz.-I believe the breadth of this middle channel may be 5 or 6 miles, the depth of water from 4 to 5, and even 6 fathoms in the fair way about the N. W. part of it, and abreast that end of the Chico. The quality of the ground all the way through this channel, is generally soft mud, fit for safe anchorage.

The N. W. pitch of the Chico Bank being passed, and the depth of water 5 or 51⁄2 fathoms, you may steer by compass W. by N. N., or W. by N. for Buenos Ayres, taking care not to shoal under 34 off Ensenada, till Point Lara Trees bear S. S.

E. A little more than half way from Point Lara to Buenos Ayres, there are two other remarkable trees.

When moored off BUENOS AYRES, in the Nereus in 19 feet water, soft mud bottom, these trees bore by compass S. 17° E., the Cathedral S. 67° W., and the spire of the Recoleta Convent S. 76° W.: the lat. observed was 34° 34' 30" S. and the long. by the moon 58° 02′ W. of Greenwich, at the distance of 8 miles from the Cathedral. Variation of the compass 124° easterly in 1813.

I have annexed a chart of Port Solodad, on Berkley's Sound, at the east end of Falkland Island. This chart was presented to the author in manuscript, by Captain John Galvin, of the ship Mercury, of Buenos Ayres, when he was in Philadelphia, in 1821, a copy of which the author had engraved for this work. Captain Galvin procured it from the captain of the French corvette Uraneé, which was at that time on a voyage of discovery, and was wrecked in this port, when captain Galvin put in there in the Mercury in a leaky state, in 1820. This information may be of importance to those who may have occasion to put in there, as it has been drawn from a late survey by the captain of the Uraneé, who settled the latitude of the entrance of that port, at 51° 40′ S. and long. 60° 40′ 20′′ W. from Paris; and as Paris is 2° 20′ to the eastward of the meridian of Greenwich, it makes the long. 58° 20' 20" E. of Greenwich, and the variation of the compass in 1820, was 23° 30′ E. as observed on board the Uraneé.

Captain Galvin informed the author he procured a sufficiency of wild fowl, by shooting them, to supply his crew with fresh provisions, and very good. When captain Galvin arrived at that place, he found the ruins of a town but no inhabitants. There was plenty of fresh water, but no fire wood.*

The PELEW ISLANDS were discovered by the Spaniards, in 1710. Their eastern limits are in lat. 7° 41' N. long. 134° 55' E. and their southwestern limits in 6° 53' 30' N. long. 1349 21' E. according to Horsburgh.

Some of the old East India Directors lay down the longitude of the Pelew Islands nearly a degree too far to the westward; and indeed, in consequence of this error, some vessels have passed them to the westward, when they thought themselves to the eastward of them. I mention this as a caution to those who use the old directory. I strongly recommend to every captain bound to China, to take with him Horsburgh's East India Directory.

I passed within one and a half mile of Angoure, the southwesternmost of the Pelew Islands, in the ship William Savery, of Philadelphia, in 1819, when Angoure bore S. W. by W. distance two leagues, there appeared a reef projecting about half a * See Thermometrical Navigation, p. 119.

mile from the low sandy point of Angoure, but as soon as this point bore north, this reef appeared like the surf beating on the shore, and no reef could be perceived. I passed within one mile of this reef. We had several of the natives along side in canoes, some of which came on board the Savery with as much innocence as a child would into its mother's lap, they are, as I am informed, a harmless and hospitable people. They had nothing to barter but cocoa nuts and fish. The wind being ahead, I made several tacks under the west part of these islands; they were bound by rocks and reefs apparently extending two leagues from the shore.

GADD'S ROCK, or CAMBRIAN'S REEF. The shoal, called Gadd's Rock, or Cambrian's Reef, is no longer doubtful; lieutenant Ross, marine surveyor to the British East India Company, in the eastern seas, having examined it on the 9th of January, 1818, found it to be a small and very dangerous shoal, about 100 yards long; upon it the boat found two fathoms water, about the middle of the rock. It is situated in latitude 21° 43′ N. and when on with the highest part of Little Bottle Tobago Zema, it bears N. 2° W. by compass.

BALE OF COTTON ROCK.*-Brig Nelly at Calcutta, 1820, from the Isle of France, reported having seen the Bale of Cotton Rock, in lat. 5° 45′ N. and long. by lunar observation, 86° 49' E. from Greenwich.

Remarks on the Palawan Coast.

By Lieutenant Daniel Ross, Surveyor to the British East India Company.

IN working or standing up the Palawan Coast, in lat. 8° 32′ N. do not stand one mile east of 117, and do not attempt to go to the eastward of that meridian until you are in lat. 8° 54' N.: even then be cautious. In lat. 9° 3' N. do not stand to the westward of 116° 45′ E., nor to the eastward of 117° 20′ in the same parallel of latitude.

From 9° 3' N. to 9° 25′ N., do not stand to the eastward of 117° 20' E., nor to the westward of 116° 56' E. In lat. 9° 50′ N. do not stand to the eastward of 110° 18' E., nor to the westward of 117° 30'. About lat. 10° N., you must keep a good look out for small rocky patches, having only 5, 6, and 7 fathoms water. From the latitude of 10° to 12° N., to the westward of 117° 30' E., we are at present unacquainted of there being any danger.-This is all the information I can

Extract from the United States' Gazette, Philadelphia.