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No. 99.
THE HONGKONG GOVERNMENT GAZETTE, 13TMп MAY, 1876.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The following Hydrographic Notice, received from the Admiralty, is published for general information.
By Command,
J. GARDINER AUSTIN, Colonial Secretary.
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 13th May, 1876.
The information contained in this notice is to be carefully considered, to be noted in the Sailing Directions, and compared with the chart when the ship is navigating the parts to which it refers.
Hydrographic Notice. No. 2.]
CHINA SEA DIRECTORY, VOL. III.
NOTICE NO. 3.
CHINA-EAST COAST.
The following information relating to the cast coast of China has been received from Mr. E. M. Edmond, commanding the Peninsular and Oriental Company steamship Orissa, 1875.*
[All Bearings are Magnetic. Variation 1 Westerly in 1876]
Namoa Island.-Dioyu_Reef (lat. 23° 31′ N., long. 117° 12 E.), consists of several rocks in shape of a horse-shoe which is open to the eastward. The reef is about 120 yards long, and has a breadth externally of 100 yards: the immer water has a breadth of 50 yards, and forms to all appearance a natural dock.
There is apparently deep water close to the reef.
Owick Bay, 2 miles to the eastward of Chanan head, should not be entered during the typhoon months, as the anchorage is unsafe with south-west winds. The bottom is of sand.
Mount Edmond (lat. 24.° 7′ N., long. 117° 50′ E.) is about 1,500 feet high, and from its isolated position is a conspicuous and useful landmark.
About 6 miles to the south-west of mount Edmond there is another conspicuous mountain about 1200 feet high. Hungwha Sound.—Passages.--The passage between Ragged islands and Passage islands should not be used during spring tides as a race then exists. The rush of tide from the N.N.E. renders the steering of a long vessel exceedingly difficult, and there is danger of her being stranded. This passage has of late years not been much used by consting steam vessels; they now use the channel to the northward of Cliff island and North Yit island, and to the southward of Passage islands.
The native pilots use the channel which lies to the southward of Cliff island and North Yit, and to the northward of Lam Yit island and Red Yit island. The islet which lies N.E. by N. from Lam point is passed on its northern side about balf' a cable distant, and in 8 fathoms water, and the islet lying N.E. three quarters of a mile from the former islet is passed on its southern side at the distance of a quarter to half a cable, and in 4 fathoms (low water); the first of the above islets is steep on the northern side, but a reef extends a cable from the southern side; the second islet appears to be steep on the southern side.
As the north point of Lam Yit island is approached the water in the channel shoals to 3 fathoms (low-water springs); the point is passed at the distance of 3 cables, then the north-west extreme of Red Yit island is steered for, giving a fair berth to the northernmost of the islets which lie between Lam Yit and Red Yit; this islet appears to be tolerably bold. As the north point of Red Yit is approached, the islet mentioned as lying N.E. by N. three quarters of a mile from Lam point is kept just open of the north point of Lam Yit, and this will lead a vessel between North Yit and the rock close to the north end of Red Yit.
North Yit covers at half flood. Cliff island is always above water, but its adjoining rocks cover at a quarter flood.† For clearing Hung rocks, the Chinese pilots have marks known only to themselves. Caution. None of the above-mentioned channels should be attempted by strangers.
Video Island, lat. 30° & N., long, 112° 46′ E., is not less than 1,500 feet high.
The following information has been received from Vice-Admiral A. P. Ryder, Commander-in-Chief in the East Indies, 1875.‡
Lung-Mun Harbour has been re-sounded from the entrance to Temple point, by Lieutenant J. F. Bedford, R.N., Admiralty Surveyor.
Since the survey of 1860 the entrance has improved and become straight, but the 3-fathoms channel inside the entrance is now more limited; also, a bar having a depth of 16 feet has formed to the south-west of the Temple between the outer and inner 3-fathoms channels. The general depths in the harbour throughout have but slightly altered, and the banks drying on either side are nearly the same. The alteration in the entrance observed by II.M.S." Insolent, in 1867, was therefore only temporary, and was probably due to the causes ascribed.
Lung-Mun harbour would safely hold a large number of small vessels moored.
Hydrographic Department, Admiralty, London, 17th February 1876.
See Admiralty Charts:-China general, Hongkong to Liau Tung gulf, No. 1262; Formosa and Japan, islands between, No. 2412; Formosa island and strait, No. 1968; China, sheet 3, Chelaug point to Chanan bay, No. 1963; China, sheet 4, Chauan bay to Matheson port, No. 1760; China, sheet 5, Matheson port to Ragged point; China, sheet 8, Hiesham istands to the Yang-tse-Kiang, including Chusan islands, No. 1199; Hai-tan strait, No. 1985; Namoa island, No. 1957: Also, China Sea Diretory, vol. 3, pp. 158, 159, 188, 323.
See foot note, China Sea Directory, vol. 3, page 188.
See Admiralty chart; Pechili and Liau-tung gulfs, No. 1256: Also, plau of Lungmun harbour, No. 2846; scale m-9 inches; and China Sea Directory, vol. 3, p. 472.
No. 100.
GOVERNMENT NOTIFICATION.
The following Notice to Mariners, received from the Admiralty, is published for general information.
By Command,
Colonial Secretary's Office, Hongkong, 13th May, 1876.
J. GARDINER AUSTIN, Colonial Secretary.
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