Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 2: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822King, Philip Parker
History
Narrative of a Survey of the Intertropical and Western Coasts of Australia — Vol. 2: Performed between the years 1818 and 1822
King, Philip Parker
Australia -- Description and travel; Natural history -- Australia
The Medusa Bank fronts the entrance of Cambridge Gulf; it projects from
the coast, near Cape Domett, to the North-West for seventeen miles, and
terminates with a narrow spit, thirteen miles north from Lacrosse Island,
in latitude 14 degrees 30 1/2 minutes. Both these banks are of sand, and
their edges are very steep to. They are covered with large quantities of
mollusca, which are also abundant in the sea in their vicinity.
CAMBRIDGE GULF extends from Lacrosse Island in a South-South-Westerly
direction for sixty-four miles. The entrance, between Cape Domett and
Cape Dussejour, is twelve miles wide; but Lacrosse Island, under which
there is good anchorage for vessels going in or out of the gulf, divides
the entrance into two channels. The western entrance is about two miles
and a half wide, and is deepest near the island: but, at a mile from the
shore, we had no bottom with fourteen and seventeen fathoms. The reefs
project from Cape Dussejour for nearly three miles. On the eastern side
of Lacrosse Island, within half a mile of the point, we had seven
fathoms, and there was every appearance of the channel being deep in the
neighbourhood of Cape Domett. Shakspeare Hill, the situation of which is
in latitude 14 degrees 47 minutes 55 seconds, and longitude 128 degrees
24 minutes, is a conspicuous object on this promontory: it is high and
rocky, and, at a distance, has the appearance of being insulated, like
Lacrosse Island.
Having entered the gulf, it trends to the South-South-West for
twenty-three miles to Adolphus Island, where it is divided into two arms,
of which the westernmost is the principal. At ten miles from Lacrosse
Island, the channel is narrowed by shoals to a width of five miles, the
shores being twelve miles apart. The land on the western side of the gulf
is high and rocky; but the opposite shore is very low, and apparently
marshy. The bottom is of sand, as are the banks on either side, and
affords good anchorage: the tide stream runs with great strength in
mid-channel, but is easily avoided by anchoring upon the weather shore
near the edge of the bank.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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