of such parts of it as may suit
his purposes.

In your way to this district, and indeed on every part of the shores of
Australia, you should lose no fair opportunity of verifying the
positions--of multiplying the soundings--and of improving the smaller
details of the coast as laid down by Captain P.P. King in his excellent
Survey, but which he had not time or means to effect with the same
accuracy that will be in your power. By carrying on this system of
correction and improvement in our present charts from Hervey Bay along
the narrow navigation which is generally known by the name of the Inshore
Passage, between the coast and the Barrier Reefs, a very great benefit
will be conferred on those masters of vessels who would be the more
readily inclined to adopt that channel, if certain parts of it were so
clearly delineated, and the soundings so spread on either side of the
tracks, that they could sometimes continue under sail during the night.
However necessary it was, and is, to contribute as much as possible to
the safety of those vessels who choose the outer voyage by the Barrier
Reefs, it is not the less our duty to facilitate the navigation of the
Inshore Passage to all vessels who prefer its tranquillity and security
to the risk of the former; and your labours for the accomplishment of
this object will prove to be of peculiar importance when steam
communication between Singapore and Sydney shall be established.

In the general and searching examination of those parts of the Coral Sea
which are likely to be traversed by ships steering for Torres Strait, you
will be obliged to regulate your movements by the periodic changes of the
weather and monsoons--probably beginning to windward, and dropping gently
to leeward by close and well-arranged traverses, and by spreading out
your three vessels to a convenient distance apart. This great expanse of
sea, which may be said to stretch from Lord Howe's Island to New
Caledonia and to the Louisiade, would no doubt require many years work in
order to accomplish that object; but, by dividing it into definite zones
or squares, and by fully sifting those which you may undertake, a certain
quantity of distinct knowledge will be gained. Navigators in crossing
those zones will then be sure of their safety, and future surveyors will
know exactly on what parts to expend their labours.

In carefully exploring the northernmost, and apparently the safest
entrance from the Pacific, which