The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-25 00:00:00

IMPORTANT TO MARINERS.

(From the Dundee Chronicle of Saturday, Jan. 21.)
The following is an extract of a letter from Captain
Clark, of the brig Adelaide of Dundee, dated Sourabaya,
18th August, 1836 :
" I arrived here on the 15th current, after a voyage of
five weeks from Sydney. I came through Torres Straits,
one of the most dangerous passages in the world. From
the North coast of New Holland to the South coast of
New Guinea, a coral reef extends the whole way, and is
called Bass's Reefs, through which there are only a few
small openings, one of which you have to seek. That
through which I passed was not much wider than the Dock
Gates at Dundee ; after which I had to steer a winding
course among innumerable rocks, banks, and coral reefs,
for upwards of 120 miles, being obliged each night to
come to an anchor. We got safe through, and proceeded
along the coast of New Holland, when we grounded on a
sand bank at about 7 o'clock P.m. The sea was so smooth
at the time, that, although I was then walking on deck, I
vay. not sensible of the ship having touched the ground ;
and it was not until the man at the helm remarked,

we are aground," and I looked over the ship and
saw the bank, that I was made aware of the fact. Shortly
afterwards, we discovered that the water was leaving us,
and at day light we found ourselves high anti dry on the
top of a sand bank, about four miles in circumference, and
no land in sight. I then went down upon the bank to ex-
amine whether the bottom of the vessel had received any
damage, and was glad to find the bank so soft, that not
even a single sheet of copper was ruffled. We got out our
anchors, and shortly afterwards the tide made, and we
were enabled to heave her off without the slightest damage

(having previously thrown out about 30 tons of ballast to
lighten her), and continued our voyage—the only difficulty
which we experienced in getting off being the softness of
the mud, which prevented the anchors from holding. The
bank is not laid down in any of my charts, and I beliere
was till now unknown. It lies in lat. 10. 20. south, and
long. 141. 27. west.

Lord Marcus Hill, we hear, has been attacked by
the prevailing epidemic.
MONEY-MA RK ET.—With all the discussion that
has taken place with respect to the " dead weight," it
does not appear that any approach has been made to the
establishing a market for it, nor has a single transaction
so far as can be ascertained, yet taken place in it. There
are buyers who profess themselves to be ready to deal to
any extent, and the Bank Directors on their part now an-
nounce unequivocally their desire to sell, but still nothing
is done. In the absence of all actual business on the
" dead weight," the notion has got abroad to-day that com-
munications have been opened with the Treasury on the
subject, as the only quarter in which the business can be
effectually done, and that consent has been obtained for a
loan, not an exchange, of some of theisaving-banks' stock,
and that an adequate value of the dead weight is to be
held on behalf of those institutions until the stock is re-
placed. This is only to be received as the best conjec-
ture, and not as actual information on the subject. One
reason why the barter of Consols against the dead weight
is not held in much favour by the public companies who
might be expected to come forward on the occasion is, that
in parting with a portion of their stock for such a pur-
pose they furnish the means of depreciating the remainder.
On the whole, there probably never was a financial opera-
tion of so much importance involved in so much uncer-
tainty as to the real state and probable issue of it.—
Times.