The Sun.
London, England, 1858-02-04 00:00:00

SYDNEY HARBOUR.

The awful wreck of the Dunbar, and the more
recent but less terrible catastrophe of the Catherine
Adamson, have turned the attention, not of the
Government only but of the people at large, to the
necessity of more perfectly marking by lights the
approaches to our harbour. The loss of the last-

named ship, indeed, was not attributable to any
want of this kind, but it has, nevertheless, had the
effect of keeping the popular feeling alive. This
feeling has strengthened the hands of the Govern-
ment, and instead of any mere temporary or imper-
fect system of lighting, the unquestionably splendid
harbour of Port Jackson will be rendered easy to
approach and easy to traverse, either by night or
by day, by the adoption of on© of the most com-
plete designs as to lights and land-marks ever de-
vised. The subject has been discussed in all quar-
ters. Thera have been suggestions innumerable ;
some of them by thoroughly practical men, and
therefore worthy of the most serious consideration.
But something far more effective than mere discus-
sion, however competent the persons engaged in it,
has in the meantime been gone on with. The cap- -
tsin, officers, and crew of her Majesty's ship Herald
have quietly set themselves to work to make a com-
plete and elaborate survey of the harbour and its
approaches. How they have accomplished it in
the time we can scarcely understand, but the survey
has been so perfect that the chart in which its re-
sults are shown, and which we have seen, is as much
a map of the land beneath the waters as of the lands
which border them. Every little shoal, every in-
equality of depth, is clearly traced by the most
careful soundings. Every distance and position
have been calculated and laid down with the utmost
nicety. A very little consideration will show the
great difficulties and labour of such a work. To
survey and map down with similar accuracy even
the same space of dry land would be a stiff job.
But the surveyor's assistants cannot run about with
flags and chait,s over the waters. There must be
the most careful Observations in every direction,
with good instruments, and with a man or men
who know how to use them. And not only must
the series of angl, s be taken and laid down with
the most minute exactness, but the same strict and
continuous attention is necessary in the boats.
They must traverse the whole surface, feeling their
way along the bottom with their lead lines. A
ordinary observer, looking at a chart covered
over with shadings and figures, may admire its
execution, but can scarcely apprsciate the enormous
labour which the accurate delineation on paper of the
portion of our globe's surface there represented must
hive occasioned. The chat t, and the beautifully exe-
cuted drawings which ze.tompany it, will reduce the
task of entering and traversing Port Jackson. to One
of mere care. Every line of approach and of tra-
verse is made plain even to the most unscientifie
eye. The lights and landmarks, which have been
designed by Captain Denham, and which, as the
necessary vote has already passed the Assembly,
will in a few months be erected, will give such
bearings to the mariner as will lead him clear of

every danger, whatever his course. The sailing
directions, which affurd the key to the chart and
drawings are plain and simple. We will not attempt
here to go into details. The design must be seen
and understood as a whole to give a correct appre-
ciation of its completeness and of the necessity of
each component part. Some of the obelisks, for
instance, were nearly vetoed in the Assembly last
week because hon. members could not understand
the need of such landmarks. It was easy, they
conceived, for any one to traverse- our harbour by
day. It,ia so in vessels of light draught and with
ordinary care ; but there are shallows in the
apparently fair way on which a large ship, handled
by a stranger or by any one not well acqu tinted with
the bearings and soundings, may stick. We have
seen a fine ship of 800 tons fast upon ono of thethesebanks, and with a pilot on board too. But with
ordinary attention to the bearings which the obe'
lisks will give, such an accident would be irepossib.l6
even to a stranger. The chart, drawings, and 81111'
ing, directions, will, we understand, be immediately
despatched to England, and, as it will take some
time to execute them, will be in the hands of shIP;
masters about the time that the new lights and
obelisks are completed. All honour, then, to C4r
tam Denham, and all honour to the men of science
and the men of sinew—the officers and crew of the
Herald, by whose aid this work hasbeen accomplishee•
And we do.
hope that there will be something more
substantial in the way of acknowledgment than nil
thanks. When the naval estimates were considered
last year the propoed allowance for the ship W,,_11.1
negatived in the Assembly upon the plea that an:
had been engaged on Imp
vice. This was not wholly true even then, a 5
Imperial, not colonial sett
surveys in the Pacific must ultimately benefit the
Anstralias more -at Britain, for it is by thee;
colonies rather than by the parent land that tilt
commercial resources of the Polynesian Isles must
be developed. But now that Capt. Denham and
his officals and men have done us such a servic6-:(
a service of greater magnitude than twenty Yearli
guardianship against foes who would probably
never come—the same excuse for parsimony earl°
hold good.—Sydney Morning _Herald, Nov. 17.