CO129-407 - Public Offices & Others - 1913 — Page 77

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From the standpoint of navigation between the north and south the North Reef forms the north-western danger of the Paracels, while approximately 60 miles

away,

and to the south-west lies Triton Island, "a sand cay, 3 feet high and a little more than a mile in length i it stands on a coral reef which extends about 14 miles northward and north-eastward, and to about half a mile in other directions. The reef has not more than 6 feet

over it, and is steep-to".

"Lincoln Island, the eastern of the Paracel Is- lands, is 1 miles in length, a little more than half a mile wide, and about 15 feet high, the north-east side being cliffy. It is covered with fairly high trees and brushwood, and surrounded by a coral reef, dry at low water, which extends from one to 3 cables. One of the cocoanut trees is said to form a good land-

mark".

"Bombay reef forms the south-east corner of the Paracels group; it is of oblong length, east and west, enclosing a lagoon; some of the rocks on its edge are

The reef awash and four of them are above high water. is steep-to and breaks."

I understand that navigation to the east or west, as the case may be, of the Paracels group is entirely dependent upon the season of the year and the correspon- ding influence of the tide and current.

It is quite

probable that the establishment of lights on the North Reef and Triton Island would have the tendency to divert shipping

as.