NOTICE TO MARINERS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 223, 6 September 1862, Page 6

NOTICE TO MARINERS.

SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN. —PELORCS REEF. Information has been received at the Admiralty fiat H..M.S. Peiorus, when navigating between New Zealand and the Fiji, on the 12th July, 1801, pa«sed within a third of a mile of a reef, which appeared to be about a quarter of a rails in length and to have not more than one or two fathoms water on its western en J, at the extremity of which breakers were visible, l's jjosiiion is in latitude 22 deg. 52J mm. S., 10n..'. 17(> deg. 27 mm. 50 sec*, west from Greenwich. Pylstanrt Island was in Btgb*, and bore N. by E. 37 miles. Also that, after dark on the evening of the same day. when steering X.W. under reduced sail, soundings were obtained with the hand lead in 7 fathoms, f Mowed by two casts of 6} awl 7 fathoms respec- | lively. The vessel was immediately brought to the j wind and tacked, an-4 the deep sea cad hove, bat no souniiiujra were obtained within 03 fathoms. This brink, if it ex:sts. is in !at. 21 deg. 43 mm. S., long. 176 de?. 42u>iu. W. Caution.—As thes'* shoals lie directly in the track o vessels bound from New Zealand to the windward ulands of the Fiji group, the mariner is cautioned to piy great aU;niioti to the lead, and to keep a good Sxik-out fordiscoloared %vatcr when in this neighborhood. The natives of tfi* FrieniHy Islands, who maintain much intercourse with the Fiji groups by means of their lar^e canoes, «tate tiiat they are aware of the existence of many shoals between and the Ono Islands to the south of the Fiji group, but are unable to define their position. The only bank of which there is any reliable information, is oueof some extej't, hnvinj; 2'/fathoms of water on it It was discovered in August, 1800, by t'iree American whalers in company, and th° mean of their observations place it in latitude 22 deg. 43 mm. south lougitude 170 deg. 11 mm. we^t. The bearings are magnetic. Variation lOdfg. 20 miv. eaatinltSGl. By command of their lordships, Jons Washington, llydrugrapher. Hj-drojrraphic Oiiicf, Adii.iralty, London, October 8, IS*JI. This notice afiVcts the fallowing Admiralty Charts, on which the>e dangers are marked:—Pacific Ocean, General Chart, No. 2,G83; and Pacific Ocean, Sheet 6, No. 2,404.