The carpenters were employed until the evening of the 25th, in preparing the cutter for her intended expedition; and the rest of the people in adding to the stores on the bank. As the Porpoise became lighter, the sea threw her higher up on the reef, and she was much shaken; but we hoped the timbers and beams would hold together, at least until the next spring tides, and that every thing would be got out. Of the Cato, nothing but a few scattered fragments had remained for several days before. Before leaving Wreck Reef, it will be proper to say something of the sand bank to which we were all indebted for our lives; and where the greater part of the officers and people were to remain in expectation of my return from Port Jackson. In the annexed view of it, Mr. Westall has represented the corals above water, to give a better notion of their forms and the way they are seen on the reefs; but in reality, the tide never leaves any considerable part of them uncovered. The length of the bank is about one hundred and fifty fathoms, by fifty in breadth, and the general elevation three or four feet above the common level of high water; it consists of sand and pieces of coral, thrown up by the waves and eddy tides on a patch of reef five or six miles in circuit; and being nearly in the middle of the patch, the sea does no more, even in a gale, than send a light spray over the bank, sufficient, however, to prevent the growth of any other than a few diminutive salt plants. On its north and north-west sides, and at one or two cables length from the reef, there is from 18 to 25 fathoms on a bottom of coral sand; where the Bridgewater might have anchored in safety, so long as the wind remained between S. W. and E. S. E., and received every person from the wrecks, with provisions for their subsistence. The latitude of the bank was found to be 22° 11' south, and longitude by the time keeper No. 520, reduced up from an observation on the afternoon preceding the shipwreck, 155° 3'; but this was afterwards found to require correction. This excellent time keeper did not seem to have been affected by the violent motion of the ship; but No. 513 stopped, and Arnold's watch No. 1736 was spoiled by the salt water.