'The Transactions of the Bombay Geographical Society. From December 1854 to March 1856. (New Issue.) Edited by the Secretary. Volume XII.' [‎110] (219/258)

LIEUTENANT CHARLES G. CONSTABLE’S Ml MOJK
coast, the chart can only be considered a hasty maritime reconnaissance. It
would be unreasonable to expect that in that time the coast could have been
sounded ; and any information concerning the coast itself, the tides and
currents, and winds and weather on it, would be quite out of the question.
I have the authority ot the late Captain Brucks, who commanded the
“ Discovery,” for stating that there exists a bank fifteen miles from the coast,
in Lat. 24* 30' N., which has never been examined.*
A shoal, apparently not more than one fathom water on it, was reported to
have been seen from the E. I. C. S. “ Coote” in August 1841, about a mile off
Burka Island.
Having now taken a glance at the shores round to Maskat, I must go back
into the Gulf to notice several banks, lying out in this sea, which are not
marked on the charts.
They form no obstacle to navigation, but, were they inserted in the chart,
would be very useful in giving a ship’s position at night or in thick weather; as
it is, they are only a cause of embarrassment to the navigator who strikes
soundings Measurements of the depth of a body of water. on them.
One was discovered in the E. I. C. S. “ Elphinstone,” Lieutenant A. H
Gardner, in June 1849, lying 30 miles from the nearest land. A twelvemonth
afterwards Lieutenant Tronson, in the E. I. C. Brig of war “ Euphrates ”
anchored on it and sounded it. This officer reports °the Latitude of the bank
26° 44 30" N., Longitude 52° 33' 20" E., the diameter not to exceed 2£
miles ; that the least water found was 17 fathoms, while the general depth of
the sea around was 40 fathoms.
Lieutenant J. Stevens, commanding E. I. C. Brig of war “ Tigris,” in
crossing from Sharga in 1845, discovered a bank on which he found 15 fathoms
water, whilst 40 is the average depth thereabout, v This bank bears about
N. 4 W., distant 5 miles from Boo Moosa Island.
The same officer reported some extraordinary overfalls he met with from
thirty to forty miles N. Westward of the Island Seir Abooneid, such for
instance as from 10 to 17 fathoms at a cast. The vessel was then on the
edge of the Great Pearl Bank, where but very few soundings Measurements of the depth of a body of water. have been taken
It would be interesting to trace the edge of this bank, which passes about 10
miles N. of Hawlool Island, and runs to the eastward, midway between the
Islands Surdy and Seir Abooneid, towards the Arabian Coast.
In 1S44, the E. I. C. S. “ Coote” was crossing from the Arabian Coast to
Basadore, and passing the Great Tumb, she crossed over a sand bank in 11
fathoms, the Island then being about five miles to the westward of her. The
* All tlie old charts, tU.se yf the last century, placed a shcal there.