be
effected by the process of heaving down, will find no suitable place
nearer than Bombay.)

In compliance with a requisition from Sir Charles Fitzroy, the Governor
of New South Wales, Captain Stanley, in the Bramble, paid a visit to
Twofold Bay, 200 miles to the southward of Sydney, a place of rising
importance as a harbour, also in connection with whaling establishments,
and the extensive adjoining pastoral district of Maneroo. The bay was
resurveyed, with a view to test the comparative merits of the two
townships there--one founded by government, the other by private
enterprise. After all, I believe, the advantages afforded by each of the
rival establishments are so equally divided, that the question still
remains an open one.

SAIL UPON FIRST NORTHERN CRUISE.

October 11th.

After a protracted stay in Sydney of very nearly three months, we were at
length enabled to start upon our first cruise to the northward, the
object of which was to make a survey of Port Curtis and part of the
Inshore Passage leading up to Torres Strait. The Rattlesnake and tender
got under weigh soon after daybreak and ran out of Port Jackson to the
northward with a fine South-east wind. In the evening the Bramble parted
company, her present destination being Port Stephens, for the purpose of
running a meridian distance, and ours Moreton Bay.

One day, while off Cape Byron, an interesting addition to zoology was
made in a small floating shellfish, which has since proved to constitute
a new genus,* throwing light, I am informed, upon many fossil univalves
in the older formations; and a rare bird of the noddy kind (Anous
leucocapillus) perched on the rigging towards evening, and was added to
the collection; for even the beauty and innocence of a tired wanderer
like it was insufficient to save it from the scalpel.

(*Footnote. This mollusc, allied to Litiopa, Professor E. Forbes has done
me the honour to publish in the Appendix as Macgillivrayia pelagica.)

ARRIVE AT MORETON BAY.

On October 18th we anchored in Yule's Roads, Moreton Bay in 12 fathoms,
sand, about a mile off shore, and remained there for sixteen days. During
our stay, some additions were made to render more complete the former
survey of this important sheet of water. Buoys were laid down to mark the
intricate channels of the north entrance, now preferred for its greater
safety to the south entrance, although lengthening by about 50 miles the
passage to or from Sydney. T