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794 KERGUELEN’S VOYAGE "TO THE NORTH,
bank to flarboard on entering. Luckily a floop belonging to the port was there, which
quickly carried a lafhing to the moorings of the eaftern or larboard fide of the jetties on
entering. On coming from the north to make Oftend, two towers at firft are diftin-
guifhed, the largeft of which has a {teeple, and belongs to the parifh church ;_ the other,
which is terminated bya gallery, is that of the clock of the town-houfe. In making the
land the one muft be kept in line with the other, until you reach the buoy, which is at
the weftern extremity of the traverfe, on which is a little red flag; this muft be kept to
larboard : you then ftcer for the eaftern jetty, which is the fafeft, and which you muft
keep clofe to, whether in coming in or going out. At high water you pafs over the
Stroom and the ‘l’raverfe : on thefe two banks the water rifes eighteen feet. A pilot,
kept for the purpofe, takes care at half-flood to hoift a fmall blue flag, in order to shew
that {mall veffels can enter. To give information to large veflels that they may enter,
he hoifts a large blue flag, on which there isan eagle. When none is hoifted, it isa
fiyn of there not being fufficient water ; in that cafe, if the fhip be at fea, fhe mutt either
tack or caft anchor: a veflel may anchor in the roads, or moor on the Stroom; and
W.N. W. of the Traverfe, in fix or feven fathoms water, with fandy bottom. The
ipring-tides rife nineteen feet, and neap-tides fourteen feet. At low water there is but
fix or feven feet on the Stroom. The mode of avoiding it is to keep the two towers
open, by about the fpace of the fize of the argeft tower, which muft be kept to the eaft.
At the eaftern point of that bank there are three fathoms water. ‘There is only three
feet water on the Traverfe, or bar, and even but two alittle eaft of the jetty, at the end
of the moorings. In fhort, to enter Oftend, great attention muft be paid to the time
of high water, which is at twelve o’clock in that port, and new and full at three o’clock
upon the banks out at fea. Attention muft be paid as well to the flood running with
rapidity E. N. E., on which account a fhip fhould fteer a little within the eaftern jetty,
and manage the fails according to the wind. ‘The entrance of the port, or of the jetties,
is S.S.E. and N.N. W.; but after having paffed the bank on the ftarboard quarter an
entering, the port makes an elbow, and bears tothe S.S.W. Ifa veffel be obliged to
enter into port without a pilot, and if the wind be ftrong, fhe muft be ready to caft an-
chor on the ftarboard fide as foon as fhe has paffed the bank which is at the entrance of
the port, and laid the veflel S.S. W.; for in cafe of not anchoring, fhe would be carried:
away by the current to the mud-banks at the bottom of the port. Oftend is very com-
modious for every fhip under forty guns; but it keeps filling up every day, particularly
fince a dam has been thrown up to prevent the overflowing of Polder St. Catherine,
which is nearly two thoufand five hundred actes of new well cultivated land. In this.
{pace, lately overflowed by the tide, the fineft bafin in the univerfe might be conftructed,
by forming a fluice in the middle of the dam, made thirty years ago to oppofe the inun-
dation. The Oftenders will be able to cleanfe and excavate their port as much as they
pleafe by means of the waters which they may dam up after flood in the Sandfort. In
refpeét to the bank on the infide of the jetties to ftarboard on entering, it is eafy to
deftroy it, by making an elbow upon the eaftern jetty to change the direction of the
drifts, by an angle of reflexion equal to the angle of incidence : the waters of the fine
fluice of Schlick, although very diftant and badly placed, would be fufficient to carry
away the bank. Ifthis fluice had been placed nearer to the trading port, at the entrance
of the canal of Bruges, its defence and its ufe would have been united; inftead of which,
it is of very little fervice where it is towards cleanfing the port, and very difficult to pro-
tect from the attacks of an enemy. ‘The town of Oftend is fmall, but very pretty; it
rendered itfelf famous during the wars of the Low Countries. Oftend takes its name
from its fitwation ; as it is at the extremity of Flanders, on the eaftern fide, it is eee
Oftenc
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