a beneficial influence over our intercourse with the natives of Torres
Strait, and induce them to refrain from a repetition of the outrages
which they have frequently committed upon Europeans; the little trade in
tortoiseshell which might be pushed in the Strait (as has frequently been
done before by small vessels from Sydney and even from Hong Kong) would
no longer be a dangerous one--and protection would be afforded to the
coaling depot for steamers at Port Albany.*

(*Footnote. I adduce this last advantage on the presumption, which now
assumes a greater degree of probability than before--that the steam
communication before alluded to will be established, and that the Torres
Strait route, the one which is almost generally advocated, will be the
one adopted.)

4. In a military point of view the importance of such a post has been
urged upon the ground, that in the event of war, a single enemy's ship
stationed in the neighbourhood, if previously unoccupied, could
completely command the whole of our commerce passing through the Strait.

5. From what more central point could operations be conducted with the
view of extending our knowledge of the interior of New Guinea by
ascending some of the large rivers of that country, disemboguing on the
shores of the Great Bight?

6 and last. But on this point I would advance my opinion with much
diffidence--I believe that were a settlement to be established at Cape
York, missionary enterprise, JUDICIOUSLY CONDUCTED, might find a useful
field for its labours in Torres Strait, beginning with the Murray and
Darnley Islanders, people of a much higher intellectual standard than the
Australians, and consequently more likely to appreciate any humanising
influence which might be exercised for their benefit.

KANGAROOS AND NEW BIRDS.

Several kangaroos or wallabies, the largest of which weighed forty
pounds, were killed during our stay at Cape York. A kangaroo dog
belonging to Captain Stanley made several fine runs, all of them
unsuccessful however, as the chase was seldom upon open ground, and there
was little chance of overtaking the kangaroo before it got into some
neighbouring thicket where the dog could not follow it. This wallaby
proved to be the Halmaturus agilis, first found at Port Essington, and
afterwards by Leichhardt in Carpentaria. A singular bat of a
reddish-brown colour was shot one day while asleep suspended from a
branch of a tree; it belonged to the genus Harpyia, and